Russia Considers Enhancing S-400 Missile System with S-500 Technologies to Meet Hypersonic Threats

The Russian Armed Forces are currently preparing to induct the S-500 long range surface to air missile system into frontline service, with the system having entered production in early 2018 and currently in the final stages of testing. The S-500 is notably not intended to replace its predecessors the S-300 and s-400 in service, but will  instead be relied on to add an extra layer to the Russian surface to air missile network. The new system is prized for its ability to engage targets at high speed up to 600km away, its ability to intercept ballistic missiles and satellites at very high altitudes and its powerful sensors allowing it to track hypersonic aircraft in space and lock onto stealth bombers such as the B-2 at long ranges. As the United States has increasingly invested in hypersonic missile capabilities to close the gap with Russia, since Moscow unveiled a new generation of hypersonic weapons in March 2018, the S-500’s ability to intercept hypersonic glide vehicles has also been repeated highlighted and is highly prized.

With Russia fielding over 50 battalions of S-400 long range surface to air missile system, which entered service from 2007, a number of reports have indicated that the military could seek to upgrade these older systems with some S-500 technologies. While the S-400 was not designed to intercept intercontinental range ballistic missiles, space planes or satellites, the system can potentially be modified to intercept hypersonic glide vehicles. Such modifications could be as simple as adding a new class of surface to air missile to its existing arsenal of over half a dozen, but may also require adjustments to the S-400’s sensors to optimise it to track such targets. The S-400 can already intercept targets flying at low hypersonic speeds such as medium range ballistic missiles, and its missiles can impact their targets at Mach 14 speeds meaning engaging a Mach 5-7 missile is comfortably within they capabilities.

Russian experts, speaking to national media outlets, have elaborated on the potential of using S-500 technologies to enhanced the S-400. Yuri Knutov, military historian, retired colonel, and director of the Museum of Air Defence Forces, stated when alluding to the expected capabilities of an enhanced S-400 variant: “We can say with a great deal of certainty that the S-500 Prometheus, the upgraded S-400 Triumf and the Peresvet self-propelled laser system will be able to cope with the interception of hypersonic targets.” Military expert Dmitry Kornev similarly stated that “the ability to defeat hypersonic targets was laid down” into S-500’s design, and that “with a certain amount of tweaking, other air defence systems, such as the S-400 and the Buk-M3, will also be able to shoot down hypersonic targets.” The BuK-M3 is a highly mobile medium range platform which makes use of a new cold launch system, and was designed to complement S-400 platforms and provide additional layers of defence. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously also expressed faith in Russia’s ability to intercept hypersonic threats, stating on June 14th: “I think that we can pleasantly surprise our partners with the fact that when they [get] these weapons, with a high degree of probability, we will have a way of combating against them.” It remains uncertain whether these upgrades to the S-400 system will be offered to export clients such as China, Algeria and India.