Russia's 600km Range Hypersonic Air Defence System Incoming - First S-500 Batteries to be Deployed in 2020

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov has confirmed that serial production units of Russia’s S-500 surface to air missile system will be deployed by frontline units in the year 2020 - in line with the state’s ten year armaments plan adopted in 2018. The missile system has reportedly completed all necessary testing, and will provide an effective complement to existing long range air defence platforms such as the S-400 and S-300V4 as well as shorter range systems such as the S-350 and BuK-M3. The S-500 is prized for its ability to intercept survivable targets including hypersonic missiles and space planes, and for its extreme 600km range, fast response time and high versatility. The platform will reportedly carry a wide range of missiles each suited to engaging specific types of targets at certain ranges, and will by able to engage targets from surveillance aircraft and heavy bombers to low orbit satellites, hypersonic cruise missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Unlike its predecessor the S-400, the platform is not intended to engage lightweight low value aircraft such as fighter jets or drones as a primary function - although its powerful sensors and munitions are reportedly capable of engaging fighters if necessary including survivable stealth designs such as the F-22. Raptor.

The primary advantages of the S-500 system over the older S-400 and S-300V4 include more powerful sensors and access to missiles which are considerably faster and can reach longer ranges and altitudes. Superior sensors and greater speed are critical to allowing the system to intercept hypersonic targets including missiles and aircraft, which Russian adversaries are expected to begin to field sometime in the 2020s. Russian concerns regarding the United States perceived militarisation of space, and American investments in next generation systems for penetrating Russian airspace including next generation B-21 stealth bombers, air launched hypersonic cruise missiles and space planes, has made a system with the S-500’s capabilities urgently needed. The S-500 is being developed alongside a longer ranged and more specialised surface to air missile system, the A-235, which has been designed exclusively to intercept attacks from intercontinental range ballistic missiles. The S-500 is the first air defence system of its kind to enter service since the S-400 in 2007 and the S-300V4 in the early 2010s, and it remains to be seen what capabilities future generations of Russian long range air defence platforms will field.