Gabala radar and similar where. Aerospace Defense - LiveJournal. Analytical Service Turan

The loss of the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan by Russia was not the result of an astronomical increase in the rent by official Baku, as is commonly believed, but American blackmail about deployment plans new program type " star wars».

At the end of 2006, the administration of President George W. Bush announced the creation in four stages of a system of missile defense elements (ABM) in Europe, which would protect European countries from nuclear missile threats from rogue states Iran, Syria, and even distant North Korea.

The Russians rightly claimed that this program was directed against national security Russia. And in principle they were right.

Mystery of Star Wars

According to the announced program, ships equipped with Aegis systems and Standard-3 interceptor missiles have already been deployed in the Mediterranean Sea at the first stage. In addition, a missile defense radar was deployed in Turkey. At the second stage, by 2015, Washington expects to transfer mobile batteries with Standard-3 missiles to the territory of Romania, by 2018 they are supposed to be deployed in Poland.

Finally, by 2020 it was planned to put into operation such systems that are capable of protecting the entire territory of NATO countries from intercontinental ballistic missiles. Only the last stage of the missile defense system, which provides for the interception of potential enemy missiles at the initial stage of flight, is today estimated at $500 billion. If implemented, it will cover the entire territory of Russia and practically neutralize the strategic missile and space forces of the Russian Federation.

Is Russia capable of presenting an asymmetric response to the Americans? Of course not. How the USSR could not do this in response to the Star Wars program announced in 1983 by US President Ronald Reagan. The Soviets, now falling behind in power, were forced to reduce medium and short-range missiles and reduce threats against Western Europe and American military bases.

The new Bush program frightened the Russian leadership too much, which understood that the military-technical and economic potential of the country was not able to keep up with the new arms race, if it started.

US Mystery

Bargaining this time was the condition of narrowing the range of the Russian radar survey in almost all directions along the perimeter of the borders of the Russian Federation. In this sense, it becomes clear why the radar station in Gabala took the central place in the anti-missile game.

This station carried out surveillance on the vital space for the United States from the Indian Ocean to the expanses of North Africa, where geopolitical events had already unfolded. The technical data of the station speaks not only of its ability to track flying objects, as is commonly believed.

The Gabala radar station, codenamed "Daryal", was put into operation in 1985 and provided the detection of targets the size of a soccer ball at a distance of up to 6,000 km, and after modernization - 8,500 km. It has high measurement accuracy, high speed and throughput, noise immunity, the ability to detect and simultaneously track about 100 objects, including underwater ones. The station is not capable of processing information on its own, and works in conjunction with its reception and processing centers “Kvadrat” and “Shvertbot” near Moscow. In practice, this is a powerful intelligence structure capable of tracking the actions of the Americans throughout this space, which, of course, cannot be included in the plans of the latter.

The Kremlin tried in every possible way to retain this important intelligence facility, even under American surveillance. It is no coincidence that on June 7, 2007, at the G-8 summit in Germany, President Vladimir Putin offered the US joint management of the station, which would have been a guarantee that Moscow was not spying on US activities in the region. Putin said: Russia offers America to share the capabilities of the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan to conduct the necessary "anti-missile monitoring" (in particular for Iran), and if Washington accepts this proposal, there will be no need to deploy missile defense elements in Eastern European countries. This idea was rejected and the Russians, after tense negotiations, as subsequent events show, were forced to give in. The global financial crisis that broke out in 2008 put an end to this dispute, which forced Moscow to abandon not only plans for an asymmetric response, but also to narrow plans to rearm the army with conventional weapons due to a catastrophic reduction in funds.

Mystery Ann Derse

The final point on this issue was made in the fall of 2011. This can be seen from the actions of the Azerbaijani leadership, which exactly a year ago raised the cost of renting the Gabala radar station from $7 million to $300 million. This step became a formal reason for terminating the operation of the station in the future. It is clear that official Baku could never put forward such a crazy condition for two reasons:

First, Aliyev, based on the possibilities of his potential, could not go against the will of Moscow;

Second, the absence of a Russian military presence would drastically narrow Aliyev's maneuver between the US and Russia and strengthen the influence of Washington, which is pushing for democratization, which Baku does not want. Both the Americans and the Russians needed a formal diplomatic reason in the form of an exorbitant increase in the cost of rent. The last one is more to save face.

An argument in favor of the version of the necessary narrowing of Russian reconnaissance capabilities is also the fact that the Voronezh radar station in Armavir, which is being commissioned, is located outside the Greater Caucasus Range, is not capable of replacing the station in Azerbaijan. “This is a weak station and its capabilities are significantly inferior to the Gabala one, although the Russians claim the opposite ... The Russians invested $1 billion in the modernization of the Gabala radar station, and only $70 million was spent on the station in Armavir. The radius of the station in Armavir covers 2500 km, and Gabala - 8500 km ”, said WikiLeaks, citing Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev, who spoke openly about this on March 14, 2009 with US Ambassador to Baku Ann Derse.

From the dispatch of Ambassador Ders dated March 19 of this year. It can be seen that Moscow, after the announcement of the American initiative to deploy a European missile defense system, conducted controversial negotiations, including the abandonment of the station in Gabala and the extension of the contract in 2012. This indicated that the issue has always been in the stage of intensive bargaining between the US and the Russian Federation.

Erdogan's secret

The fate of the station was finally sealed on September 12, 2012, when the US National Research Council recommended that the White House and Congress abandon the fourth stage of the deployment of a missile defense system in Europe. "Phase 4 should be canceled because it is not necessary for the defense of Europe and is less than optimal for the defense of the United States," concluded the authors of the report, who are experts from among retired military leaders, scientists and former US administration officials.

The center of gravity of the fourth stage of missile defense, which is less expensive, experts recommended moving far to the East. NIS advised that, in addition to the sites of Fort Greeley in Alaska and Vandenberg in California, the establishment of another silo-based interceptor missile base in the continental United States. They propose to place another similar base in the northeastern part of the United States. Conclusion expert council meant that the Russians abandoned the fight for Gabala in exchange for freezing the fourth stage of the American missile defense system in Europe.

On December 10, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced an explanation that was not taken seriously about the suspension of the work of the Gabala radar station: in the negotiations preceding the closure of the station, "readiness to continue cooperation with the Russian side" was demonstrated, but she was not satisfied with the rent.

It followed from the text of the statement that on December 10, the Russian Foreign Ministry presented Azerbaijan with a note on the suspension of the operation of the station in connection with the "Agreement between the governments of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russian Federation on the status, principles and conditions for the use of the Gabala radar station". The agreement on the lease of the radar station by Russia, signed in 2002, expires on December 24, 2012.

It is interesting that this decision of Russia was announced to the whole world not from Moscow, but from Baku, which confirms that the true background of the decision on the fate of the radar station lies far beyond the borders of Azerbaijan.

On September 11, 2012, the Second Meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council between Azerbaijan and Turkey was held in Gabala, which ended with the signing of seven documents. In terms of their significance, they did not particularly correspond to the high status of the meeting: about metrology, television partnership, rescue services, seed production and others. The meeting was previously planned in Baku, but was unexpectedly moved to a place five steps away from the Gabala radar station. This meeting, which took place almost simultaneously with the release of the US National Research Council report on missile defense, was a symbolic message from Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan that Russia's military era in Azerbaijan is over.

Analytical Service Turan

Employees of the radar station (RLS) "Daryal", located in Azerbaijan's Gabala, which is being transferred to rotational service, wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin asking him to protect their rights. The document was signed by several dozen wives of Russian officers, who from August 1, by decision of the leadership, must remain on the street - none of the officers in Russia has either permanent or official housing.

“We are not demanding anything impossible, we are just looking for a human relationship, a clear explanation of what is happening and what will happen to our families,” the women wrote to Putin.

According to the text of the letter, a copy of which is at the disposal of Izvestia, before August 1, officers and sergeants who serve at the station must independently take their wives and children to Russia. Those who cannot do this are asked to write reports for transfer to another place of service or to leave the army.

“An explanation of how to organize the move has not been received by the unit up to and including today,” the letter says. On the other hand, work was organized to eliminate the kindergarten and the Russian sector at the local school, where the children of officers studied, and their wives worked as teachers, the wives of officers say.

The letter specifically emphasizes that it is not clear where to put the children in those families where both parents are military personnel. In addition, the parents of the wives of some Russian officers do not live in Russia, but in other CIS countries.

The Gabala radar station "Daryal" provides Russia with control over airspace throughout the Middle East, China, India and the Indian Ocean up to the northern coast of Australia. The station's lease expires on December 24.

The leadership of the Aerospace Defense Troops (VKO), to which the station in Gabala is subordinate, explained to Izvestia that shift method was chosen for the sake of economy.

- In order to somehow reduce the cost of rent, it was proposed to minimize the number of leased objects and refuse to use the military camp. It was proposed to resettle the officers in the housing stock on the territory of the station itself - there are former barracks there. For a rotational method, such housing is quite suitable, - explained the interlocutor of Izvestia.

In addition, the representative of the East Kazakhstan region emphasized that the officers in Gabala "earn decently and can afford not only to move to Russia, but also to buy housing."

— average salary for a military man - €4 thousand. The minimum - €2.5 thousand. For civilian specialists - about the same. With such an income, it is not difficult to find housing, - the representative of the command of the East Kazakhstan region is sure.

At the same time, the command units claim that they share the indignation of the officers and their wives, but they cannot do anything.

- IN staffing there will be no employees of the kindergarten, the wives of officers who worked in the Russian sector of the school as teachers, in fact, are listed in other positions, and we are forced to prohibit them from such a combination. But we are doing everything possible to help those who cannot continue to live like this leave: we give leave for 10 days “due to personal circumstances”. During this time, it is quite possible to take the family to their parents or settle down outside the military camp - for example, rent an apartment in Gabala, - the high-ranking officer of the unit explained.

He also stressed that the officers, who have nowhere to take their families, can submit a transfer report at any time, but many are kept by high salaries. However, since the beginning of the year, out of almost 200 officers, a little more than 140 have remained in the unit. At the same time, he stressed that after the transfer to the rotational method, officers without wives will be difficult to keep from drinking and debauchery.

“The family still serves as a serious deterrent against addictions,” the officer noted.

According to officers' wives, a third of the women who remained in the unit are "in a position" or take care of children 1.5-3 years old. More than 100 work for the radar station as civilian employees. Periodically, they are offered to "resign for own will", and on vacancies do not take.

In the Russian section of the local school, 150 children studied, who, when moving, would have to be urgently placed in other schools. educational establishments. At the same time, about 20 officers with their families are “at disposal”, that is, they have already been removed from their posts and are waiting for permanent apartments in order to retire from the army.

“We believe in the effectiveness of the reforms being carried out in the army aimed at strengthening the defense capability of our state, but we believe that they should not adversely affect our families,” the officers’ wives wrote to Putin.

At the reception of Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Izvestia was confirmed that the situation "causes sympathy", but explained that the minister is now on a business trip.

  • April 9th, 2012 06:43 am

Original taken from korotchenko_i in Armenian alternative to the Gabala radar station - Igor Korotchenko

Armenia's radar proposal is a real alternative for Russia

The Russian Federation may start negotiations with Armenia on the construction of a radar if it fails to agree with Azerbaijan on a lease in Gabala.

Russia and Azerbaijan have been negotiating for a long time on the terms of renting a radar station in Gabala. The contract, signed in 2002, expires in December this year. In this connection, Russia is trying to negotiate a prolongation of its action. It is expected that the results of the negotiations will be announced in the summer.

Wherein Igor Korotchenko, Chief Editor magazine " national defense», fully admits Russia's acceptance of Armenia's proposal.

“Azerbaijan, for unknown reasons, suddenly increased the rental fee for the use of the Russian station in Gabala to a large extent,” an expert told Finam FM. - Such demands from Azerbaijan are unrealistic and absolutely do not correspond to the spirit of Russian-Azerbaijani relations. In my opinion, they are not based on real financial and economic calculations. Under these conditions, Armenia's proposal may be a very real alternative.”

However, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan announced the readiness of the state to provide the territory of Armenia for the construction of a Russian radar: “I think that there may even be advantages here, since Armenia is a mountainous country. The coverage could be wider," Lenta quoted the prime minister as saying, citing Kommersant.


  • March 15th, 2012 , 11:34 am

Azerbaijan's demands to increase the rent for Russia's use of the early warning radar located in Gabala by more than forty times - from $7 million to $300 million - surprisingly coincided with the aggravation of the situation around Syria and Iran. At the same time, negotiations between Russia and the United States on European missile defense reached an impasse - this was announced on February 29 by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who was in Kaliningrad at a meeting of the Interdepartmental working group on cooperation with NATO in the field of missile defense.

And this gives reason to see in the actions of official Baku not only a crude economic interest, but also a kind of policy, and at the same time a clearly oriented one. Yes, there were experts who immediately saw only an economic component in Azerbaijan's financial claims. As if bargaining is actually going on around the distribution of certain gas flows, and Gabala itself is only a lever of pressure on Moscow in this dispute. As is known, Azerbaijan does not rule out its participation in the project of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline bypassing Russia. The "pipe" will allow transporting gas from Turkmenistan to the Nabucco gas pipeline, which is a competitor to the South Stream pipeline.

However, official Baku rejects the gas background and says that the rent should be made taking into account the real value of the radar in the Russian Aerospace Defense system. For some reason, they are sure that this value is very high. Faraj Guliyev, a member of the Milli Majlis parliamentary committee on defense and security, said that if the Gabala radar station continues to be leased to Russia, then this should be done taking into account the real price. “I think that the Azerbaijani side is completely right if, in negotiations with Russia, it sets certain conditions and asks a high price for the lease of this facility,” the parliamentarian stressed. At the same time, he said that Baku understands the need for the operation of this station as a Russian military facility in the region.

The piquancy of the situation is that Russia itself has long doubted the need to spend millions of dollars annually on renting a radar station in Gabala and millions on its maintenance.

Raising the rent to $300 million will make the operation of the radar station in Transcaucasia truly enslaving, unprofitable in all respects - economic and military.

We must remember history. Since the beginning of the 1970s, a very powerful and effective strategic missile defense system has been created in the USSR. One of its main components was to be powerful over-the-horizon radar systems, which were part of single system about an early missile attack. Huge radars were built in various parts of the USSR, which could control the aerospace at a distance of thousands of kilometers.

The place of the radar station of the "Daryal" 5N79 type on the territory of the Azerbaijan SSR in the area locality Gabala was defined at a time when the Shah's Iran was the most loyal US ally in the region. Then there was a real danger of deploying in this country - at least - American operational-tactical missiles with nuclear warheads. And the radar station in Gabala was aimed mainly at controlling the aerospace over Iran, although its capabilities allowed for observation at a distance of 8,000 kilometers in the sector from Burma to Central Africa. The first stone in the foundation of the future radar station was laid in 1976 by the then First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, the father of the current president of the country, Ilham Aliyev. The station was commissioned in 1985.

After the collapse of the USSR, the nationwide missile defense system began to rapidly decline. Physically preserved, but in fact, two powerful radar stations in Sevastopol and Mukachevo in Ukraine were taken out of Moscow's control. They blew up an over-the-horizon radar station in Skrunda in Latvia. In reality, Russia has lost effective control over the aerospace direction in the most missile-prone areas.

Surprisingly, in the "dashing" nineties, we quietly began work on the creation of fundamentally new radar systems for warning about a missile attack and controlling outer space. A series of new over-the-horizon radars of high factory readiness of a modular type was created. From ready-made blocks, like a Lego children's toy, it was possible to form any appearance of the radar for a specific task, increase or, conversely, reduce the energy potential and resolution of the radars. The creation of over-the-horizon radar systems, which had the code "Product 77Ya6" with different letter designations - M, DM, VP - can be considered a revolutionary breakthrough in strategic missile defense, and now - in the aerospace defense system. The West certainly did not expect such a technological breakthrough from Russia.

Modular radar stations, called "Voronezh", are being built quite quickly on pre-prepared sites the size of a football field. If the radar station in Gabala was built for almost ten years, now the station, even with the best performance can be built in two years. And in the near future, the appearance of completely unique mobile multifunctional adaptive over-the-horizon radars of the Mars type is expected. These radars can be very quickly relocated to any missile-prone direction, placed on sea ​​vessels. "Voronezh", not inferior to stations of the "Daryal" type, consumes incomparably less electricity - only 0.7 MW. For comparison: the station in Gabala requires 50 MW, and its maintenance there really costs a lot of money.

Currently, the Voronezh-M missile warning system is on combat duty in the Leningrad Region. Two Voronezh-DM stations are being put into operation - not far from Armavir and in the Kaliningrad region. This year, it is planned to take the Voronezh-VP radar complex into trial operation in the Irkutsk region. The construction of similar stations in the Komi Republic and in the Murmansk region should begin.

With the advent of the Mars-type radar, the problem of controlling aerospace in any part of Russia, including those close to Azerbaijan, will disappear altogether.

That is, the need for the Gabala radar station will be lost in a natural way.

Indeed, why does Russia need a radar station that controls the aerospace over Iran and is able to detect the launch of even the smallest missile from the territory of this country and flights of all types over it aircraft? Iran does not threaten us with aggression, it does not brandish a nuclear missile baton over our heads. And US missile systems, of course, cannot be placed on the territory of this country.

The only ones who should be interested in preserving the Gabala radar station are the United States and Israel. And even then only if these countries and Russia conclude appropriate agreements on the exchange of information about a possible missile attack. Moreover, the agreements are mutually beneficial. In 2007, Russia offered the United States to jointly use the Gabala radar station and refuse to deploy elements of its missile defense system in Europe. Since the Americans are afraid of an Iranian missile strike, we were ready to give them a guarantee that the strike would not come as a surprise. As Vladimir Putin, who was then president, noted, “this station covers the entire area, which arouses suspicion among our American colleagues.”

Washington considered Moscow's proposal and refused. And now Azerbaijan's demarche only confirmed that the United States, of course, is not afraid of a missile strike from Iran.

The task of EuroPRO is completely different - total control of aerospace over the territory of the Russian Federation.

It can be assumed that the compulsion of our country to eliminate the radar station in Gabala is due to the fact that neither the United States nor Israel wants Moscow - if the "X" hour happens - in no case would know where, where and what kind of missiles are actually actually fly in this region.

That's the whole secret of the "Europroshny Open" in the Azerbaijani Gabala.

MOSCOW, December 10 - RIA Novosti.Russia, according to a statement released on Monday by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, on whose territory the radar station is located.

Gabala radar station of the "Daryal" type 5N79 (RO 7, object 754) is one of the most important elements of the missile attack warning system (SPRN) former USSR and now Russia.

It is located in the area of ​​the Zaragan settlement of the Gabala region of Azerbaijan. The radar station is located at an altitude of 680 meters above sea level, above all settlements located in the scanning radiation zone.

Intended for:

detection of ballistic missiles on flight paths within radar coverage areas;

tracking and measuring the coordinates of detected targets and jammers;

calculation of movement parameters of tracked targets according to radar measurements;

determining the type of goals;

issuing information about the target and interference environment in automatic mode.

The composition of the radar:

command and measurement center;

transmitting radio engineering center;

repair and calibration base;

node of communication and information transfer.

Lead developer JSC "RTI named after A.L. Mints", Moscow. Put into operation in 1983. Operates in continuous duty mode.

The radar station controls the territories of Iran, Turkey, China, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Australia, as well as most of the African countries, the islands of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

A distinctive feature of the station is the ability not only to detect a missile launch in a record short time, but also to track the missile trajectory from the first seconds of launch and transmit data in advance for interception at the desired point.

The radar of the "Daryal" type has a phased antenna array of the receiving center 100x100 m (almost 4000 vibrator crosses) and a PAR aperture of the transmitting center measuring 40x40 m (1260 powerful transmitting replaceable modules with an output pulse power of each 300 kW), provides target detection with an RCS of the order of 0, 1 m at a distance of up to 6000 km in a field of view of 110 degrees in azimuth. It is distinguished by increased accuracy in measuring parameters, high speed and throughput, noise immunity, the ability to detect and simultaneously track about 100 objects.

During the Iran-Iraq war, the radar detected 139 live launches of Iraqi Scud missiles.

The object "Daryal" is a 17-storey building with a height of 87 m. Its creators were awarded the State Prize of the USSR.

The number of service personnel is about 900 military personnel and more than 200 civilian specialists (an intergovernmental agreement sets a limit of 1.5 thousand people).

After Azerbaijan gained independence and the radar station became its property, Russia continued to use the station. In accordance with a bilateral agreement signed in 2002, the Gabala radar station has the status of an information and analytical center and is the property of Azerbaijan. Leased to Russia for a period of 10 years. The annual rent under the 2002 agreement is $7 million. The agreement expires on December 24, 2012.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported on negotiations with Azerbaijan to extend the lease of the Gabala radar station until 2025. According to media reports, Azerbaijan intends to sharply increase the price for the lease of the radar. One of the conditions of Azerbaijan is also an increase in the personnel of the Azerbaijani military at the radar station and the transfer to local residents of the food, trade and other services in the military camp at the station.

According to Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Russia is interested in maintaining the same cost of rent, but at the same time wants to drastically reduce the territory occupied by the station. The station will be completely rebuilt; with its new look, a large amount of communications will not be needed. By 2020, it is planned to build a new generation radar station in its place (

Finally a more or less sensible explanation

Gabala radar - officially called the radar station "Daryal", deployed in the village of Gabala (350 km west of Baku), not far from Ganja. Data on the number of personnel - fluctuate (from 1400 to 2000 people). Subordinated to the Space Forces of the Russian Federation and designed to detect ballistic and cruise missiles on flight paths, tracking and measuring the coordinates of detected targets and jammers, as well as calculating the movement parameters of tracked targets and determining their type.

The range of the radar is up to 6-7 thousand km.
Ground-based radars with greater target detection range, to the best of our knowledge, do not exist.
The decision to build the station was made in 1972 by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU - in connection with the US plans to deploy a nuclear submarine base in the Indian Ocean (Diego Garcia Island).
In 1976 construction began. In 1983, the first radar units began to be launched. In 1984, the unit took up experimental duty. In February 1985, the station went on combat duty.

The Gabala station is facing outward (the territory of North Africa, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan, as well as a significant part of the Indian Ocean) is under radar surveillance. The territory of Russia is not monitored by the station (again, we recall that the turning of the viewing sector of such radars outside when they are located near the borders of the country is a condition of the ABM Treaty).

The Gabala station is the only one that has experience in combat launches. In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, the radar recorded all, without exception, 302 launches of cruise missiles from American bombers, surface ships and nuclear submarines, including 15 cases of missing missiles on the trajectory and 30 cases of missiles being hit by Iraqi air defenses. The radar was also actively used in the post-Soviet period - during US air operations against Iraq ("Desert Fox", 1998) and the Afghan Taliban ("Strong Freedom", 2001). The technical resource of the radar makes it possible to ensure its continuous operation until 2012.

The agreement on the Russian lease of the radar station was signed by the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan on January 25, 2002 and has already been ratified by the parliaments of both countries. According to the agreement, the Gabala radar station is the property of Azerbaijan. Russia leases the radar until 2012, and without the consent of Baku, Moscow has no right to conclude any agreements with a third party on the use of the radar. The station has the status of an information and analytical center.

So, the Gabala radar station is a Daryal-type station with a very high target detection radius (6-7 thousand km). This is one of the specification parameters. The other has to do with the relationship between radar and warfare strategy.

What is the specificity of the old and new technological (and hence military, and hence political) era? The previous era - also known as the "era of mutually assured destruction" - is the entire aggregate system in which Gabala is inscribed.

The specificity of this consistency lies in the fact that Gabala (like the entire system of early warning of a missile attack - SPRN) was "sharpened" for the instantaneous detection of a missile attack on the USSR, which guarantees the leadership of the USSR the necessary time to make a decision on a retaliatory nuclear missile attack. hit.

The leadership, having decided on this strike, could thereby ensure the following.

First, guaranteed retribution. Which was of decisive importance.

Secondly, the suppression of certain radar capabilities that turn American missiles into blind ones already in the middle of a flight. This second possibility had no absolute significance. But it was also important.

We could not protect the entire territory of the USSR from nuclear missiles if they were already launched. The Americans could not protect themselves from our missiles either. That was the old era.

At that time, the missile defense system existed only around Moscow. And in this form it exists to this day. At that time, their missile defense system also protected only the area where their key strategic potential was based - silo ICBMs in North Dakota.

Gabala was focused on a nuclear attack by a super-powerful adversary (not some kind of Iran, but the United States, who decided to wage a nuclear war to completely destroy the USSR). And on the "strike of retaliation." All this is reflected in technical solution. And all this is very different from what the Americans are now "kneading".

The Americans (at least declaratively) want to protect themselves from individual "adventurous" missiles, and not from a massive strike to destroy the United States. Is such a desire only a declaration (behind which is the desire to be safe from Russian missiles that can be fired after the Americans launch the first strike), or is it a real strategy? Let those who are supposed to answer. In the official statements we have already cited by officials (that is, those who are "supposed to"), it was said that the Americans want to protect themselves from our "retaliation strike", and not Europe from Iran. Now officials may say otherwise. But this, as they say, is a matter of life.

Already today, the Americans want to chase every single missile that is aimed at the point they want to protect. They want to protect themselves. But precisely all of its territory. They say that they also want to protect Europe, NATO allies, all friendly countries and all progressive humanity.

Russia opposed the increase in the rent for the radar from the current $7.5 million to $300 million per year, which Azerbaijan insisted on; a more advanced radar of the Voronezh-DM type in Armavir is already being tested

Gabala radar station Photo: AzerTAc/ITAR-TASS

The Gabala radar station of the Daryal type 5N79 (RO 7, object 754) is one of the most important elements of the missile attack warning system (SPRN) of the former USSR, and now Russia. It is located in the area of ​​the Zaragan settlement of the Gabala region of Azerbaijan. The radar station is located at an altitude of 680 meters above sea level, above all settlements located in the scanning radiation zone.

Intended for:

Detection of ballistic missiles on flight paths within the radar coverage areas;

Tracking and measuring the coordinates of detected targets and jammers;

Calculation of movement parameters of tracked targets according to radar measurements;

Goal type definitions;

Issuance of information about the target and interference environment in automatic mode.

The composition of the radar:

Command and measurement center;

Transmitting radio engineering center;

Repair and verification base;

Node of communication and information transfer.

Lead developer JSC RTI named after A.L. Mints, Moscow. Put into operation in 1983.

The radar controlled the territories of Iran, Turkey, China, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Australia, as well as most of the African countries, the islands of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

A distinctive feature of the station is the ability not only to detect a missile launch in a record short time, but also to track the missile trajectory from the first seconds of launch and transmit data in advance for interception at the desired point.

Radar type "Daryal" has a phased antenna array of the receiving center 100x100 m (almost 4000 vibrator crosses) and a PAR aperture of the transmitting center measuring 40x40 m (1260 powerful transmitting replaceable modules with an output pulse power of each 300 kW), provides target detection with an EPR of the order of 0.1 m at a distance up to 6000 km in the field of view of 110 degrees in azimuth. It is distinguished by increased accuracy in measuring parameters, high speed and throughput, noise immunity, the ability to detect and simultaneously track about 100 objects.

During the Iran-Iraq war, the radar detected 139 live launches of Iraqi Scud missiles.

The object "Daryal" is a 17-storey building with a height of 87 m. Its creators were awarded the USSR State Prize.

The number of service personnel is about 900 military personnel and more than 200 civilian specialists (an intergovernmental agreement sets a limit of 1.5 thousand people).

After Azerbaijan gained independence and the radar station became its property, Russia continued to use the station. In accordance with a bilateral agreement signed in 2002, the Gabala radar station has the status of an information and analytical center and is the property of Azerbaijan. Leased to Russia for a period of 10 years. The annual rent under the 2002 agreement is $7 million. The agreement expires on December 24, 2012.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported on negotiations with Azerbaijan to extend the lease of the Gabala radar station until 2025. According to media reports, Azerbaijan intends to sharply increase the price for the lease of the radar. Azerbaijan's conditions were an increase in the personnel of the Azerbaijani military at the radar station and the transfer to local residents of the food, trade and other services in the military camp at the station.

Russia was interested in maintaining the previous cost of the lease, but at the same time wanted to drastically reduce the territories occupied by the station. The station was to be rebuilt. With its new look, a large amount of communication was not required. By 2020, it was planned to build a new generation radar station (of the Voronezh VP type) in its place.

Russia expected to complete the negotiations before June 2012, since the new agreement must be concluded no later than six months before the expiration of the old agreement.

On December 10, 2012, the Russian side suspended the operation of the Gabala radar station.

Expert opinion:

The Gabala radar station was important to Russia until it got a much more modern radar station near Armavir. Such an opinion in a conversation with a correspondent IA REGNUM expressed the deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis. According to him, today Russia does not need the Gabala radar station at all.

“I myself am categorically against the continuation of the operation of this senseless object. This would be a gross mistake, ”the expert said. According to the interlocutor, the new radar station significantly outperforms the Gabala one in terms of functionality and efficiency, and its more northerly location plays no (or almost no) role.

Answering the question of why, in this case, Russia was conducting protracted and difficult negotiations with Azerbaijan regarding the extension of the lease of the Gabala radar station, Khramchikhin suggested that the loss of Gabala forced the Armavir radar station to be put into operation in a forced mode, which the Russian side would prefer to avoid . “In addition, perhaps Russia wanted to have two operating stations for some time. Let's not forget that the Gabala radar station also made it possible to bargain with the Americans,” said the deputy director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis.

As for the possible impact of the decision to suspend the operation of the Gabala radar station on Russian-Azerbaijani relations, Khramchikhin noted that this is now a problem for Azerbaijan, since it was precisely because of his position that the lease was not extended. “Azerbaijan considered the Gabala radar station a lever of influence on Russia and decided to use it. It was his mistake, since there is no longer a lever, ”the expert concluded.

 

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