An advanced Russian medium- and long-range air surveillance radar station, Protivnik-GE, has arrived for a radio-technical unit of the Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense troops, the republic’s Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.
"A possibility will now appear to detect and track ballistic targets, as well as to increase the range of aerial target detection, increase the mobility of the automated grouping and cut expenses on the radar’s operation through the use of modern technologies," the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.
As Chief of the Belarusian General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister Major-General Oleg Belokonev said, the radar delivery is an historic moment for radio-technical troops and the troops’ switchover to "a new qualitative level for ensuring national security, helping to increase combat capabilities considerably and raise their mobility."
Air Force and Air Defense Commander Major-General Oleg Dvigalyov said that another radar station would enter service early next year and Belarus would receive a total of seven such radars by 2020.
“The Protivnik-GE early-warning radar has passed the government acceptance tests. The first radar went online today. Another one will be commissioned early next year. In accordance with the army weapon program Belarus is supposed to get seven radars like that by 2020. One of them will be used to train cadets of the Military Academy,” said Major-General Oleg Dvigalev, Chief of the Air Force and Air Defense Command of the Belarusian army.
The Protivnik-GE early-warning radar is a highly automated system that incorporates state-of-the-art radio location, computing technologies, and engineering solutions. It is a modern mobile tridimensional radar station able to detect aerodynamic and ballistic targets in a combat environment and can track simultaneously up to 200 targets at an altitude of up to 150km as far as 450km. It is reported by the Belarusian news agency "Beltа".
The Protivnik-GE early-warning radar is designed to detect aerial targets and track strategic and tactical aircraft, aircraft missiles, and small-size low-velocity aircraft. “Detecting high-speed ballistic missiles is one of the most complicated tasks that modern radars face. The new radar is capable of doing the job. In many tactical and technical parameters the Protivnik-GE model is superior to all the other Belarusian radar stations in use. For instance, the new radar boasts unique protection against active, passive, and combined jamming thanks to its digital antenna array. Apart from that, Russian weapon designers have managed to increase the precision of detection of aerial targets and the measurement of their coordinates. The recognition of the target class is the most important advantage,” said Colonel Igor Nasibyants, Chief of the Radio Warfare Troops of the Air Force and Air Defense Command of the Belarusian army. In his words, once these radar stations are deployed, Belarus will have a complete radar surveillance system for non-strategic counter-missile defense purposes.
According to data of the Belarusian Defense Ministry, the mobile three-dimensional radar station Protivnik-GE is designed to detect, determine coordinates and track strategic and tactical aircraft, airborne missiles, ballistic targets, small-size, low-speed aircraft amid intensive jamming, and also to issue radar data to command post automated systems. The small number of transport vehicles and the automated antenna elevation system help quickly deploy (displace) the radar on unprepared terrain within slightly over 30 minutes.