MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Two Rezonans-N radars capable of spotting hypersonic targets will be deployed on the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Arctic by the end of the year, a source in the defense industry told TASS on Friday.
"Two Rezonans-N radar stations will be deployed on the Kola Peninsula in 2020 to boost the combat potential of the Northern Fleet. One radar is already being fielded while the second station has been delivered to the peninsula and is due to be deployed by the end of 2020," the source said.
The Northern Fleet earlier received three such stations: two in the northern Arkhangelsk Region and one on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Russian Arctic. Therefore, five ‘hypersonic target hunters’ will be monitoring missile-threat directions within the Fleet’s responsibility area by the end of the year, the source added.
Rezonans radars operate in the meter band and employ the principle of wave resonance, which allows detecting aircraft based on stealth technology and also hypersonic targets flying at a speed of up to Mach 20. The radar is capable of detecting targets and issuing target acquisition on aerodynamic targets at a distance of 600 km and at a range of 1,200 km on ballistic targets, at an altitude of up to 100 km.
As another source in the defense industry told TASS in January, Russia’s General Staff has decided to order five more Rezonans-N radar stations. They are expected to be deployed in the Arctic east of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
The Pentagon has said that developing hypersonic weapons for the US Armed Forces is priority No. 1. According to the data of the US Air Force, at least one American hypersonic missile prototype is due to be tested by 2022.