Russia to upgrade missile attack warning system

The Oko-1 ballistic missile early detection system, which formed part of Russia’s missile attack warning system (MAWS), is to be superseded by a new unified outer space system capable of tracking tactical missiles as well as ballistic ones.

It came to light recently that the last geostationary satellite of the Oko-1 ballistic missile early detection system had gone out of commission. The 71H6 apparatus, put into orbit in March 2012, was operational for only a third of its expected working life. The loss of the satellite weakened the outer space segment of the missile attack warning system (MAWS), which is one of the main elements of the country's strategic defense system. Igor Lisov of trade magazine Cosmonautics News told RBTH that MAWS is still fully operational. Despite the fact that the geostationary satellites have been lost, the Cosmos-2422 and Cosmos-2446 satellites, which operate in high orbits, are still running. According to Lisov, geostationary satellites and high-orbit satellites can typically compensate for one another, but under the current circumstances, it is difficult to confirm that this is the case here. Only two of the four satellites are in normal operation, which is the bare minimum necessary to do the job. The remaining satellites are struggling to cope with the workload.