TULA, January 20. /ITAR-TASS/. President Vladimir Putin visited a defense enterprise in Tula, Central Russia, on Monday, January 20, to take a look at Russia’s new Pantseir-S1 air defense system.
The Pantsir-S system designed for air defense of small military and administrative-industrial objects and areas against aircrafts, helicopters, cruise missiles and high-precision weapons, guided air bombs and unmanned aerial vehicles as well as for reinforcement of AD groups during repulse of massive air strikes and ensuring of engagement of lightly-armored targets.
Pantsir-S is considered to be a universal system capable of fighting planes, helicopters, ballistic and cruise missiles, guided aerial bombs, and other high-precision weapons. It can also be used for destroying underwater and surface light-armored targets and manpower.
The system consists of 12 surface-to-air guided missiles and two 30-millimeter automatic guns. It is provided with multi-range radar capable of detecting aerial targets with effective surface of dispersion of up to 2-3 square meters at a distance of more than 30 kilometers and track them down from a distance of over 24 kilometers.
It can also work in a passive mode using an infrared channel in the long-wave band with logical processing of the signal and automatic tracking.
The system can conduct fire at two targets at the same time and attack up to 12 targets within a minute. The system's effective range for missiles is 20 kilometers and the maximum altitude is eight kilometers, and for artillery shells up to 3 and 4 kilometers respectively.
The probability of destroying the target is 0.6 to 0.8 depending on its type and obstacles. The time of response is 5-6 seconds.
The modernized airborne combat vehicle Bakhcha was also shown to Putin.
After reviewing firearm samples - pistols, submachine guns and grenade launchers - Putin came up to the replica of a residential compound, which is to be built for the plant’s personnel.
Putin arrived in Tula on a working visit to review the work of the Instrument Design Bureau, which designs and makes high-precision weapons, and to hold a meeting on the work of the Advanced Research Fund to be attended by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov, federal ministers and heads of state corporations.
Putin is also scheduled to meet with Tula Governor Vladimir Gurzdev.
The Advanced Research Fund was created in 2012 to support defense research and development, and help achieve better results in the field of military-technical cooperation and practical application of innovative ideas. The Fund is headed by Andrei Grigoryev.
The Fund operates in three key areas: chemical-biological (and medical), physical and technical, and information.
Advanced Research Fund will amount to 3.325 billion rubles in 2014.
“The Fund plans to disburse 3.325 billion rubles for the implementation of its projects in 2014,” the Fund’s press service said.
In 2013, the Fund allocated 3.8 billion rubles for its projects. “Last year was a formative year for the Fund and the volume was slightly bigger than this year,” the Fund’s Spokesperson Andrei Veduta said.
The Fund has already considered more than 1,000 and is currently financing 12 of them. “We are working on 12 projects now,” Veduta said.