Ukrainian drone strike significantly harms critical Russian radar station
Over-the-horizon radars are one of Russia's security pillars. With a range measured in thousands of kilometres, they are intended to detect threats in advance, primarily ballistic missiles. Ukrainians severely damaged one of the four such stations.
On Thursday, May 23, Ukraine carried out an unprecedented attack on strategically significant installations located in Russia. The target of the Ukrainian drones was the radar station in Armavir (Krasnodar Krai, 44°55'32.0"N 40°59'02.0"E), consisting of two 77Ya-6DM Voronezh-DM over-the-horizon radars.
These radars are the size of multi-story buildings, so they were not destroyed due to their dimensions. However, available recordings confirm that both were severely damaged.
This is a critical success for the Ukrainians, not only in a propaganda dimension. A successful attack was carried out on one of the few facilities that were critically important to Russia's strategic security. Each radar costs approximately 4.5 billion rubles (approximately 65 million CAD), and construction and commissioning require many years.
Russian Voronezh over-the-horizon radars
The Russian early warning network consists of four Voronezh-DM stations with UHF band radars (one of which was just damaged), four with VHF band radars, and one Voronezh-WP radar, also operating in the VHF band.
These radars are distributed on the edges of Russia, including the Kaliningrad Oblast. According to Russian sources, each station can detect an object the size of a soccer ball from a distance of 5,950-8,050 kilometres and simultaneously track up to 500 detected targets. In practice, this means controlling the airspace over Europe and part of the Atlantic.
Voronezh-DM has such an extensive range because It is an over-the-horizon radar (similar to, for example, Duga radars, which include the famous Moscow Eye). This device uses the ionosphere's properties (one of the atmospheric layers, about 60 kilometres high).
Plasma is present in the ionosphere, which is the result of the ionization of gas molecules. This enables the ionosphere to act as a huge screen reflecting radar waves. A signal sent at an appropriate angle by the over-the-horizon radar—reflecting off the ionosphere and the ground—can reach far beyond the horizon, extending the range of ordinary radars.
