Russia's "gold-coated rubber multi-sided fort" shipborne air defense system is nicknamed the mysterious system of the Russian version of "Aegis" by the outside world.
The development of the "multi-sided fort" shipborne air defense system began in the 90s of the last century and is intended to replace the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in the air defense forces. The system is characterized by the use of various types of anti-aircraft missiles of the S-300 and new anti-aircraft missiles, such as the 9M96 and 9M96M, which have a completely new warhead, super-maneuverable capabilities, a terminal active radar seeker, and are highly effective in destroying all existing and future aerodynamic and ballistic targets. However, due to serious lags in the testing of the S-400 missile system and funding problems, the Novik-class frigates were not equipped with air defense systems and a number of other subsystems, which led to their long-term mooring at the plant. But all this did not stop the pace of "gold-coated rubber multi-sided fort". In 2008, the Guardian-class frigate "Gorshkov" became the first surface ship of the Russian Navy to install this system. At the "Leader" level, the system has been upgraded and improved.
Radar: "Gold-coated Rubber" phased array radar is an active phased array system radar. As the main shipborne radar, it is mainly used for air and sea target alert, detection, tracking and fire control, which can replace the previous independent guidance fire control radar and provide target guidance services for shipborne air defense missiles. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the element of the active phased array radar has the ability to work separately and is multi-functional, which can not only reduce the number of radar equipment, but also greatly increase the number of fire control channels during fire control irradiation, so that the missile can cope with multi-target saturation attacks and have regional air defense capabilities. The "gold-coated rubber" radar uses the C-band as the main operating band, and can track up to 400 air targets and 50 surface targets at the same time. The reason Russia chose C-band over S-band is that C-band is more accurate and can be optimized to better meet the needs of long-range detection and fire control.
Universal vertical launch system: The "Multi-Sided Fort" system is a multifunctional vertical launch device, which can realize the co-launch of long-range, medium-range and short-range anti-aircraft missiles. However, unlike the vertical launchers of other countries, the "Multi-Sided Fort" only fires anti-aircraft missiles, while anti-ship missiles and land-attack cruise missiles use a separate set of launchers. Over the course of history, the early model of this system was 3K96, and the universal vertical launch model was 3K97. With the development of the times, Russia's new generation of frigates and destroyers began to use the UKSK universal shipborne launch device, which is also regarded as part of the "gold-coated rubber multi-faceted fortress" ship-to-air missile system.
Today, the Multi-Sided Fort launcher is capable of launching new missiles of the S-400 air defense system, such as the 48N6 family of long-range anti-aircraft missiles, which have the ability to meet medium-range ballistic missiles. For different types of ships, the "multi-faceted fort" system has different configurations. For corvettes and corvettes, the "multi-faceted bunker" does not include missiles of the 48N6 family, which are needed by large surface main combat ships to enhance their defenses. In addition, the "multi-faceted fort" can also launch 9M96M long-range air defense missiles with a range of 120 km, 9M96 medium-range air defense missiles with a range of 40 to 50 km, and 9M100 short-range air defense missiles based on RVV-AE, forming a multi-level air defense system. This system can not only launch anti-aircraft missiles, but also coordinate the close defense system of naval guns and projectiles to shoot down air targets that penetrate the defense in the shortest possible time.
Anti-aircraft missile: The 9M100 missile is a short- and medium-range anti-aircraft missile developed by Russia, which is responsible for the lowest level of air defense in the "Multi-Sided Fort" launch system. Its design is inspired by air-to-air missiles, which countries around the world are trying to convert into anti-aircraft missiles, which is not only effective, but also can significantly reduce costs. The 9M100 missile has a canard layout, a design that increases the flexibility and maneuverability of the missile. It has a slender body with four X-shaped trapezoidal canards in the head and four trapezoidal tails in the tail. The air rudder surface area is small, mainly to reduce drag and increase speed.
The weight of the 9M100 missile is 140 kg, the warhead weighs 145 kg. It has a bullet length of 3165 meters, with a projectile diameter of 02 meters with a wingspan of 0536 meters. Compared with other anti-aircraft missiles, the 9M100 missile has a smaller range and firing height, ranging from 500 meters to 15,000 meters and an altitude between 5 meters and 8,000 meters. The overall design and aerodynamic base of the 9M100 missile comes from the world-renowned R-77 medium-range air-to-air missile, which makes it very powerful in performance. This design allows the 9M100 missile to have high combat effectiveness and survivability in air defense operations.
In fact, in the 90s before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the level of mainstream military equipment in the Soviet Union was about between that of the United States and major European countries, and it was not much different. From the disintegration to the present, it cannot be said that Russia has not developed at all, it can only be said that there has been no progress in fact, but fortunately, the United States is also regressing.