S-500 (missile)

The S-500 Prometey (Прометей) ("Prometheus") is a Russian surface-to-air missile system, currently under development by the Almaz-Antey Air Defence Concern. It is also known as 55R6M "Triumfator-M."

The S-500 is a new generation surface-to-air missile system. It is designed for intercepting and destroying missiles and aircraft, for air defense against Airborne Early Warning and Control, and for jamming aircraft. With a planned range of 100 km (62 mi) for Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) and 125 km (78 mi) for the air defense, the S-500 would be able to detect and simultaneously engage up to 1 short rangeballistic supersonic targets flying at a speed of 3 kilometres per second (1.9 mi/s; 11,000 km/h; 6,700 mph) to a limit of 3.5 km/s (2.2 mi/s; 13,000 km/h; 7,800 mph). It also aims at destroying hypersonic cruise missiles and other aerial targets at speeds of higher than Mach 5 as well as spacecraft. The altitude of a target engaged can be as high as 18–20 km (11–12 mi). It is effective against ballistic missiles with a launch range of 1,500 km (2,200 mi), the radar reaches a radius of 100 km (100 km for the EPR >10 square meter).

The system will be highly mobile and will have rapid deployability. Experts believe that the system's capabilities can affect enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles at the middle and end portions of flight, but reports by Almaz-Antey say that the external target designation system (RLS Voronezh-DM and missile defense system A-135 radar Don-2N) will be capable of mid-early flight portion interceptions of enemy ballistic missiles, which is one of the final stages of the S-500 project.

In 2009, the system was under development at the design stage at Almaz-Antey and had been planned to be completed in 2012. In February 2011, it was announced that the first S-500 systems should be in serial production by 2014. Under the State Armament Programme 2020 (GPV-2020), the plan is to purchase 10 S-500 battalions for the Russian Aerospace Defense (VKO).

The main components of the S-500 will be:

Although sharing a similar designation, the relationship between this new S-500 and the S-500U project of the 1960s is unclear. The S-500U multichannel anti-aircraft system was a 1968 initiative by the Soviet Air Defence Forces, Soviet Navy, Ministry of the Radio Industry (Ministerstvo Radio Promyshlennosti SSSR), and Ministry of the Shipbuilding Industry to create a unified complex for the National Air Defence Troops, navy and ground troops. Missiles of the S-500U complex were supposed to engage enemy aircraft at a range up to 100 km (62 mi). The S-500U SAM complex project was rejected by the Soviet Army, which had a requirement to engage not only enemy aircraft, but also short range ballistic missiles. Consequently, the S-300 family (SA-10 and SA-12) was developed instead. Russia is developing two plants to produce the S-500 in 2015 but some say the earliest delivery to units will be in 2016.

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Wikipedia