MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. Russia has set up the basic space segment of its missile attack early warning system to continuously monitor US territory for possible ballistic missile launches. The segment’s four satellites are fully coping with their task, a source in the domestic defense industry told TASS on Thursday.
"With the launch of the fourth Tundra-type space vehicle from the Plesetsk cosmodrome on May 22, the Kupol integrated space system has been brought to the minimum required structure and allows tracking any launches of ballistic missiles and space rockets from the territory of the United States. The satellites are accomplishing their mission in working orbits in full," the source said.
The Tundra satellites "are equipped with next-generation infrared surveillance devices that make it possible to register with high precision the launches of missiles against the background of the Earth’s surface," he said.
The satellites are also "capable of tracking the trajectory of the flight of ballistic missiles and predict the areas of the fall of their warheads in the automatic mode," the source noted.
The four Tundra satellites from Russia’s Kupol single space system are moving around Earth in highly elliptical orbits with a maximum altitude of over 35,000 km of their flight above the planet. Their flight paths are located at angles to each other, forming the so-called constellation over the Northern hemisphere, the source specified.
Russia’s missile attack early warning system
The first three Tundra satellites were launched in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
As another source in the defense industry earlier told TASS, the Kupol integrated space system is set to involve nine new satellites. The Kupol orbital grouping is designated to replace the defunct Oko and Oko-1 missile attack early warning systems.
The Russian missile attack early warning system consists of two echelons: the space segment that currently comprises four Tundra satellites and the ground-based component that consists of Voronezh-type radar stations that cover all missile-dangerous directions.
The system is designated to detect within the shortest time possible and track ballistic missiles launched towards the territory of Russia or its allies.