Serpukhov-15
Serpukhov-15 (Russian: Серпухов-15) is a military townlet near Kurilovo in Kaluga Oblast which is the location of the western control centre for Russia's Oko satellites.[2] These give early warning of ballistic missile launches, mainly from the continental United States. The site is part of the Main Centre for Missile Attack Warning and information from here is processed at the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces centre in Solnechnogorsk[2][3] and could be used, together with early warning radar such as the Voronezh, for launch on warning[4] of the A-135 anti-ballistic missile system. A similar facility is located at Pivan-1 in the Russian Far East.
The name Serpukhov-15 is a code name following the practice established to name closed cities and military facilities. It is named after the nearest city, Serpukhov in Moscow Oblast which is about 35 kilometres (22 mi) away.[5]
Oko
Oko consists of two types of early warning satellites - US-K and US-KMO. The older US-K satellites are in highly elliptical molniya orbits which give them coverage of the United States at certain times during the day. For full coverage of the US missile grounds four US-K satellites need to be operational and the system can have up to nine of them in orbit at once. [6]: 44 The US-KMO satellites are geosynchronous satellites providing continuous coverage. In total, 101 satellites have been launched.[7][8][9]
The system was placed on combat duty in 1982.[6] The last US-KMO satellite (Kosmos 2479) was launched on 30 March 2012 [10] and the last US-K satellite (Kosmos 2469) on 30 September 2010.[11] They are due to be replaced by a new system called EKS.[12]: 7
Facility
In 1960 the site was used as one of the locations of the missiles for the S-25 Berkut (Russian: С-25 Беркут) air defence system. Later it was one of the intended bases for A350 missiles for the A-35 anti-ballistic missile system, although it was not completed.[13]
The Oko control centre was built later and was put on combat duty in 1982.[6]: 48 [14] It consists of antennas and facilities for data processing.[6]: 40 Photographs of the site show a number of buildings and seven domes, presumably containing the antennas.[15][16]
As the western control centre it can communicate with geosynchronous satellites in four of the seven reserved locations, those looking over the Atlantic. The other three, looking over the Pacific, need to be controlled from the eastern centre.[6]
Location Name[6]: 51 | Longitude [6]: 51 | Control Centre [6]: 52 |
---|---|---|
Prognoz-1 | 24°W | Serpukhov-15 |
Prognoz-2 | 12°E | Serpukhov-15 |
Prognoz-3 | 35°E | Serpukhov-15 |
Prognoz-4 | 80°E | Serpukhov-15 |
Prognoz-5 | 130°E | Pivan-1 |
Prognoz-6 | 166°E | Pivan-1 |
Prognoz-7 | 159°W | Pivan-1 |
1983 incident
On 26 September 1983 the system suffered a major malfunction when it erroneously identified a launch of five Minuteman ICBMs in the United States.[17] It appears that the system misidentified a particular set of circumstances including high clouds and the autumn equinox.[18]: 6 Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov, the officer on duty at the time, discounted the reports as the system had only recently become operational and the launches were not corroborated by early warning radar.[17]
2001 fire
A fire broke out at the control centre on 10 May 2001[19] at 2:20 local time.[14] The military tried to put the fire out itself but called the civilian fire brigade at 3:20 local time. They discovered that the fire was located in the gap between the second and third floors. 100 firefighters were involved and media reports said that the affected building was burnt out.[14][20] It was reported that the centre restarted operations on 20 August 2001.[6]: 50
At the time of the fire there were four satellites in the constellation, all US-K in molniya orbits. The effect of the fire was that control of the satellites was lost for 12 hours.[14] Satellites in molniya orbits need contact from the ground station every 2 or three orbits to maintain their orbital position.[21] The fire caused the loss of four satellites - two satellites were lost immediately (Kosmos 2340 and Kosmos 2351) and two more (Kosmos 2368 and Kosmos 2342) within a year due to the negative effect on their orbits.[21]
References
- ^ Holm, Michael (2011). "916th independent Radio-Technical Unit". Soviet Armed Forces 1945-1991. Archived from the original on 2015-10-09. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
- ^ a b Podvig, Pavel (2012-01-30). "Early Warning". Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. Archived from the original on 2013-01-12. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
- ^ Safronov, Ivan (2002-12-27). "[FOUR OKO SATELLITES ARE KEEPING AN EYE ON RUSSIA]". Defence & Security (in Russian). 149. Eastview. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2012-05-25.(subscription required)
- ^ Podvig, Pavel (1994). "The Operational Status of the Russian Space-Based Early Warning System" (PDF). Science and Global Security. 4 (3): 363–384. Bibcode:1994S&GS....4..363P. doi:10.1080/08929889408426407. ISSN 0892-9882.
- ^ Ivashko, Sergei (11 May 2001). "Серпухов-15 восстановят не скоро" [Serpukhov-15 will not soon be restored]. Gazeta.ru. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Podvig, Pavel (2002). "History and the Current Status of the Russian Early-Warning System" (PDF). Science and Global Security. 10 (1): 21–60. Bibcode:2002S&GS...10...21P. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.6127. doi:10.1080/08929880212328. ISSN 0892-9882. S2CID 122901563. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-15.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "US-KMO (71Kh6)". Gunter's Space Page. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "US-KS (74Kh6)". Gunter's Space Page. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "US-K (73D6)". Gunter's Space Page. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Pavel, Podvig (2012-03-30). "Cosmos-2479 - new geostationary early warning satellite". Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. Archived from the original on 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ^ Pavel, Podvig (2010-09-30). "Cosmos-2469 might be the last HEO early-warning satellite". Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. Archived from the original on 2012-03-09. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ^ Podvig, Pavel; Zuang, Hui (2008). Russian and Chinese Responses to US Military Plans in Space (PDF). Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ISBN 978-0-87724-068-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2012-05-23.
- ^ O'Connor, Sean (2012). Russian/Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (Report). Air Power Australia. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2012-12-02. Retrieved 2012-05-23.
- ^ a b c d Topol, Sergey; Safranov, Ivan (11 May 2001). "У России проблемы с ПРО: Она сгорела" [Russia has an ABM problem: it burnt down]. Kommersant. Archived from the original on 2014-10-20. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
- ^ Slavarko (13 March 2010). "УС-КС" [US-KS]. Panoramio. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ Slavarko (13 March 2010). "УС-КС" [US-KS]. Panoramio. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ a b Forden, Geoffrey; Podvig, Pavel; Postol, Theodore A (2000). "False alarm, nuclear danger". IEEE Spectrum. 10 (3): 31. doi:10.1109/6.825657. ISSN 0018-9235. Archived from the original on 2015-05-27. Retrieved 2012-05-23.
- ^ Forden, Geoffrey (May 3, 2001). "Reducing a Common Danger: Improving Russia's Early-Warning System" (PDF). Cato Policy Analysis No. 399. Cato Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- ^ Bleek, Phillipp C. (June 2001). "Fire Shuts Down Russian Early-Warning System". Arms Control Today. Arms Control Association. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ "Russia blaze hits satellite network". BBC News. 2001-05-10. Archived from the original on 2004-07-28. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
- ^ a b Paleologue, A (2005). "Early Warning Satellites in Russia: What past, what state today, what future?". In Pejmun Motaghedi (ed.). Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 5799. Modeling, Simulation, and Verification of Space-based Systems II. SPIE. pp. 146–157. doi:10.1117/12.603478.
External links
- Photograph of the site from Vympel
- v
- t
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- Kosmos 520
- Kosmos 606
- Kosmos 665
- Kosmos 706
- Kosmos 862
- Kosmos 903
- Kosmos 917
- Kosmos 931
- Kosmos 1024
- Kosmos 1030
- Kosmos 1109
- Kosmos 1124
- Kosmos 1164
- Kosmos 1172
- Kosmos 1188
- Kosmos 1191
- Kosmos 1217
- Kosmos 1223
- Kosmos 1247
- Kosmos 1261
- Kosmos 1278
- Kosmos 1285
- Kosmos 1317
- Kosmos 1341
- Kosmos 1348
- Kosmos 1367
- Kosmos 1382
- Kosmos 1409
- Kosmos 1456
- Kosmos 1481
- Kosmos 1518
- Kosmos 1541
- Kosmos 1547
- Kosmos 1569
- Kosmos 1581
- Kosmos 1586
- Kosmos 1596
- Kosmos 1604
- Kosmos 1658
- Kosmos 1661
- Kosmos 1675
- Kosmos 1684
- Kosmos 1687
- Kosmos 1698
- Kosmos 1701
- Kosmos 1729
- Kosmos 1761
- Kosmos 1774
- Kosmos 1783
- Kosmos 1785
- Kosmos 1793
- Kosmos 1806
- Kosmos 1849
- Kosmos 1851
- Kosmos 1903
- Kosmos 1922
- Kosmos 1966
- Kosmos 1974
- Kosmos 1977
- Kosmos 2001
- Kosmos 2050
- Kosmos 2063
- Kosmos 2076
- Kosmos 2084
- Kosmos 2087
- Kosmos 2097
- Kosmos 2105
- Kosmos 2176
- Kosmos 2196
- Kosmos 2217
- Kosmos 2222
- Kosmos 2232
- Kosmos 2241
- Kosmos 2261
- Kosmos 2286
- Kosmos 2312
- Kosmos 2340
- Kosmos 2342
- Kosmos 2351
- Kosmos 2368
- Kosmos 2388
- Kosmos 2393
- Kosmos 2422
- Kosmos 2430
- Kosmos 2446
- Kosmos 2469