9K720 Iskander-M (SS-26 Stone) - Design
The Iskander missile platform was used by the Russian Army in two variants – the Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile complex and the Iskander-K cruise missile platform. While the complexes share the same launch platform, it has different operational capabilities. Iskander-M is capable of high precision strikes at a 500-km range and is to replace the aging Tochka-U tactical missiles. While the complex has various conventional warhead types, it can also carry nuclear ones.
The SS-26 missile is superior to its predecessor, the Oka. The launch carrier vehicle carries two missiles, rather than one. And each missile can be independently targeted, in a matter of seconds. The missiles can be retargeted during flight not only against fixed targets, but also against moving targets, such as a tactical missile launcher, a tank column, or a convoy. The Iskander has another unique feature: the optically guided warhead can also be controlled by a coded radio signal, including from an AWACS or an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). This provides a self-homing capability. The missile's onboard computer receives an image or images of the target. Then the missile, by locking on the target with its sights, will travel towards it at supersonic speed.
The system can be used against small and large targets. The Iskander missile can easily overcome air defense systems. It's almost impossible to prevent a launch of an Iskander missile because of the system's mobility. Targets can be found not only by satellite and aircraft but also by a conventional intelligence center and by a soldier who directs artillery fire. Targets can also be found from photos, which will be put into a computer by means of a scanner. The self-direction device functions even in fog or darkness. Only the Iskander system can accomplish such tasks.
According to Nikolay Guschin, chief and senior designer of the Machinebuilding Design Office, the complex is meant for covertly preparing and launching effective missile strikes at small-size targets of particular importance. A specificity of this complex is the high level of automation in the pre-launch preparations little time required to make it ready, and the high precision of shooting.
Each Iskander launcher is capable of carrying two missiles which can be armed with a wide variety of conventional and nuclear weaponry, ranging from bunker-busting munitions and air-burst cluster fragmentation warheads to high-explosive fragmentation warheads and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) rounds. Warheads weigh between 480 and 700 kg. The system’s nuclear warhead variant has a throw weight of up to 50 kilotons – classifying it a tactical nuke.
The Iskander also has a cruise missile variant known as the Iskander-K. In an announcement on Russian plans to transfer Iskanders to Belarus in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that the delivered systems would be able to fire both “ballistic and cruise missiles,” and both conventional and nuclear rounds.
The TEL was likely based on the new BAZ-6909 family of trucks, first publicly displayed at a commercial transport show in Moscow in August 1995. Two missiles are carried on each launcher, though the delay between firing each round is unclear. The new TEL is apparently based on the the 9P71 Oka TEL, though the new SS-X-26 TEL has been designed with the INF Treaty in mind, with several external changes that clearly differentiate the two vehicles to prevent treaty compliance problems. The nose of the vehicle has been extended forward, the chassis lengthened, and the access door arrangement has been changes. The tactical parameters of the two vehicles are probably similar.
The composition of the complex makes it possible to ensure the full cycle of its use in combat, including its combat control, information base, technical servicing and the training of its crews, without the involvement of additional remedies.
During flight, Iskander-M missiles accelerate to speeds of up to Mach 7 (2.6 km per second), climb to altitudes between 6 and 50 km, and maneuver in flight to avoid enemy air defenses. The Iskander-K cruise variant engages in evasive maneuvers and flies low to the ground to avoid radar detection and allow them to get the drop on adversaries. US missile defense systems including Patriots and the Terminal High Altittude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles are designed to intercept ballistic and cruise missiles, including the Iskander, but this has yet to be tried in practice.
The US announced plans to deliver Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine late last year, but the system’s less than stellar performance against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and even against Yemen’s Houthi warriors, has raised questions about how the Patriot will perform against a near peer or peer adversary like Russia. The Iskander-M missile system has a circular error probable (CEP) rating of between 30 and 70 meters, or 5-7 meters when equipped with a homing system. The system has a minimum range of 50 km, and a maximum range of up to 500 km. If deployed in northern, western or southern Belarus, Iskanders would be able to reach the Baltics, most of Poland, and most of northern Ukraine, respectively.
Iskanders are normally deployed in brigades, of which by 2019 there was one at Chernyakhovks in Kaliningrad and one at Luga, south-west of St Petersburg. A missile brigade is made up of three battalions, each of which has eight missiles on launch trucks and as many again on reload vehicles. A brigade thus has 24 ready missiles that can be fired in a salvo, and 24 reloads that can be fired 30–60 minutes later. Iskander-M is replacing the 1970s-vintage SS-21 Tochka in Russian missile brigades. It has been in service with the Russian Armed Forces since 2006 and was first used in the war against Georgia, albeit with mixed results.
Russia's defense industry announced in late 2015 the creation of a new missile. According to military expert Igor Korotchenko, the announcement was careful to conceal the new missile's specifications. The first ever night-time test of the system was made in November 2015. Russia's new missile for the Iskander-M launcher, said to have been completed on 31 December 2015, had some secret characteristics, weapons expert Igor Korotchenko told Sputnik. "The Ministry of Defense and the industrial enterprises are not disclosing the tactical and technical characteristics. This is so that a potential opponent would not take counter-measures," Korotchenko said.
According to Korotchenko, the two main factors behind the development of a new missile are the precision of the strike and the ability to maneuver against anti-air and anti-missile defenses. "Because of this, the new ballistic missile, now part of the Iskander-M system, will allow the completion of tasks before the systems, but much more effectively and invulnerable to the opponent," he added.
Korotchenko added that the Iskander-M missile system may be armed with both ballistic and cruise missiles, which allows for a flexible approach when it comes to destroying targets. The head of Russia's Missile Forces Aleksandr Dragovalovsky previously said that the country's defense industry is developing four ballistic and one cruise missile for the Iskander-M system.
Several new missile types have been developed for Russia’s cutting-edge Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile complex according to its chief designer. The Defense Ministry considered adopting the new missiles to enhance the system. While the Army currently operates the missiles (approved in 2011), the development continued and the complex “constantly evolves,” Valeriy Kashin, chief designer of the Konstruktorskoye Byuro Mashynostroyeniya research and production corporation told reporters 14 September 2017. “A number of missile types have been designed, they do not differ in appearance. It currently has at least seven variants of missiles,” Kashin, celebrating his 70th birthday, said.
Apart from the hardware, the complex, will get a new control system and new software compatible with the new missiles, the chief designer added. The Ministry of Defense has “generally supported” the development of the new munitions, but the project is still developing. “We’ve prepared propositions for the further development of the Iskander-M complex and introduced them to the Defense Ministry. They have received general support, but currently undergo the stage of registration and approval,” Kashin stated.
In May 2017, the Russian Defense Ministry announced plans to enhance the accuracy and capabilities of Iskander-M with the new missile types. “[Iskander] is a true gem of our Land Forces, it has the characteristics fitting marginally into the restrictions imposed by the treaties on mid-range missiles usage,” Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said.
In the wake of the US withdrawal from the INF Treaty in 2019, Russia may lift its self-imposed restrictions on the Iskander’s flight range, and develop new ballistic or cruise missiles which would extend its reach by hundreds or even thousands of kilometers.
For obvious reasons, Russia doesn’t advertise the cost of its Iskander missiles or launch platforms. Western and Ukrainian media have estimated the cost of an individual rocket at about $3 million, but have not provided compelling evidence to back up this approximation, with the estimate possibly a propaganda ploy designed to exaggerate the cost of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
Air Launched SS-26?
The 9M730 Knizhal - Dagger / Product 75 air-launched hypersonic missile system was unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 1. The Russian leader said the Kinzhal had an operating range of over 2,000 km. The MiG-31K fighter jet is the basic carrier of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. The MiG-31 has a length of 70 feet, 5 inches (21.5 meters), while the Iskander / SS-26 is 7.2 meters long. These dimensions correspond very nicely to the released imagery. The video released on 12 March 2018 shows the release of the missile from the MiG-21 and the ignition after a drop of many hundreds of feet. The exhaust of the missile is quite smokey, consistent with the solid propellant of the Iskander, but inconsistent with the essential claim of the Dagger system, that the high-speed MiG-31 is used as an accelerator for a hypersonic air-breathing missile.
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