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Don-2NP Horse Leg 46°00'11"N 73°38'59"E

The Horse Leg radar was the engagement radar prototype for the Pill Box battle management radar. The HORSE LEG radar array, the testbed for the ABM engagement radar in place at Pushkino north of Moscow, is locate about 12.44 miles northwest of the Terra-3 laser complex.

If the Soviets became committed to developing awidespread ABM defense system, they had two viable options. Most likely, a new radar would be specifically designed to replace the Flat Twin Twin. However, a radar similar to the Horse Leg radar could be developed. A replacement for the Flat Twin radar would perform significantly better than the Flat Twin because of the evolution of technology since the Flat Twin's inception in the l960s. The new radar would have a greatly improved scan angle, a better multiple-target-tracking capability, and greater detection range. Such a radar could be designed to be mobile, allowing deployment within a day, rather than transportable like the Hat Twin, which had demonstrated a six-week assembly time.

A new mobile radar would be more appropriate than the Flat Twin for a widespread ABM defense system. The mobility alone of a new system would increase its survivability. Soviet radar requirements indicates that a new radar could reduce the required number of radars by as much as 60 percent. This reduction in the required number of radars could increase the attractiveness of a nation-wide ABM defense system to the Soviets. The CIA believed that the Soviets were not likely to have such a radar and a new endo-atmospheric missile available for deployment — even if such a combination was in developmmt — until alter the year 2000 at the earliest.

The Soviets could also accrue significant technical advantages by deploying a Horse Leg—type radar at Kamchatka. A Horse Leg radar would provide an additional ABM test and training site for the ABM-4 system. It would not, however, provide the Soviets the ability to field a quickly deployed, widespread ABM system. Each Horse Leg and Pill Box radar would take years to construct and would be detected long before they became operational. The Horse Leg and the Pill Box were systems that the Soviets would be more to choose if, for example, they decided to openly field ABMs in response to US defensive deployments under a modi?ed ABM Treaty, rather than covertly prepare for a fast-paced. nationwide breakout of the Treaty.

If the Soviets chose to improve their ability to be ready to deploy a widespread ABM defense system, they would quite possibly develop a new interceptor as a new radar. Even if testing started soon and progressed at a more rapid pace than observed in Soviet ABM programs over the 15 years from 1975 to 1990, these interceptors would not be ready for ABM deployment until after the year 2000. But it was not known if the interceptors under development were intended for the upgraded Moscow ABM system or were part of a program to investigate a more rapidly deployable option. If they were, in part, intended for an as option for a more rapidly deployable ABM system, it well it was highly likely that the Soviets are also developing radars suitable for rapid deployment.