Today, the Russian Aerospace Forces launched a Soyuz-2-1b rocket, carrying a satellite designed to serve as an advance warning of missile attacks. Soyuz lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at about 10:46 Moscow Time, beginning a multi-hour mission to deliver the Tundra No.4 satellite into an elliptical Molniya orbit.
This launch puts the fourth Tundra satellite, part of Russia’s Kupol missile detection system, into orbit. This spacecraft monitors the Earth Do from their high vantage points watching for signs of missile launches below. Kupol, which was previously known as Edinaya Kosmicheskaya Sistema (EKS) – meaning Unified Space System – is a replacement for the Soviet-era Oko system.
The Tundra satellite was built by RKK Energia, based around the Viktoria platform that the company developed with its previous experience constructing Yamal communications satellites in the late 1990s. Tundra incorporates an infrared telescope to detect heat sources – such as the exhaust from missile launches – with complementary optical and ultraviolet sensors also installed. Using this suite of instruments, the missile can be tracked throughout its flight, allowing its potential targets to be identified more quickly than with ground-based radar tracking.
Earlier it was reported that in the future the orbital grouping will consist of 10 Tundra satellites, the deployment of which should be carried out by 2022.
According to open sources data, iunlike the old Oko satellite systems, the new Tundra spacecraft is capable of tracking not only the launch of ballistic missiles from the earth and water surface, but also determining the parameters of their ballistic trajectory and the potential areas of damage. Moreover, a combat control system is available on board the new vehicles.
Controlling the Tundra satellites, as well as the satellites of the two previous systems, is carried out from the Central command post of the missile warning system, located in Serpukhov-15.
The EKS "Tundra" devices (product 14F142) were developed at the joint-stock company Comet Corporation of Special Purpose Space Systems (Moscow) with the participation of the JSC Scientific Production Association named after S.A. Lavochkin (NPOL).
