Context:
Indian Air Force has successfully operationalized three of its S-400 Air Defense System squadrons along the borders with China and Pakistan.
About S-400 Air Defence System:
- A mobile long-range surface-to-air missile system
- Developed by – Russian state-owned enterprise.
- It has capability to protect against almost all sorts of aerial attacks, including drones, missiles, rockets and even fighter jets.
- Key features –
- It has command and control centre, automatic tracking and targeting systems, launchers and support vehicles.
- Range – Aerial targets (400 km); Surveillance range (up to 600 km)
- It can simultaneously engage 80 aerial targets.
- Altitude: up to 30km.
- Functioning –
- Detects an aerial threat approaching the air defence bubble
- Calculates trajectory of the threat and fires missiles to counter it.
- It has long-range surveillance radars that send information to command vehicle.
- On identifying target, command vehicle orders a missile launch.
- Strategic Importance –
- Fills gaps in India’s national air defence network
- Complement India’s indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence system
S-400 vs others:
- USA’s THAAD is a one-dimensional missile system as it can fire only one type of missile upto a range of 150-200 km and cannot intercept a fighter jet.
- USA’s Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) has ability to intercept aerial targets at a range of 180 km.
- As compared to Israel’s Iron Dome, S-400 has capacity to protect a much larger area from threats that are much farther.
Read about Iron Dome
Source: Economic Times
Previous Year Question
What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2018 Prelims]
(a) An Israeli radar system
(b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme
(c) An American anti-missile system
(d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea.
Answer: (c)
