Military Modernization
Ukrainian Defense Review/January-March 2019
A New Lease of Life for Proven Weapons
S-125M Pechora
Ukraine Offers Upgrades for Pechora, Osa, Shilka, Tunguska SAM Systems
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kraine has developed life extension upgrades for Soviet legacy surface-to-air systems, aimed to extend their service life and to bring up to date their specifications and performance parameters.
S-125M Pechora
The S-125 Pechora is a Soviet-era SAM system developed for defense against aerodynamic threats, manned or unmanned, flying at 20 to 1,800 meters high, at ranges from 3.5 to 25 km away. In total, more than 400 units of the S-125 system have been sold worldwide. Some of them, despite their age, continue to be in operational use. However, the S-125 technology still has much room for upgrading and improvement. Thus, Radionix, Kyiv, has developed an upgrade package for the S-125М "Pechora" SAM ystem which includes modernizing the 5V27D missile to the 5V27D-М1 and 5V27D-М2 standards equipped respectively with semi-active and active seeker heads.
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The package encompasses improvements to all the key components and subsystems, including the UVN radar post, high-frequency receiving devices, radio command transmitters, TV/optical sighting equipment; 5P73 launcher; 5V27D missile; and a new booster motor replacing the 5С45. Upgrade package for the 5V27D missile includes a Customer-selectable semi-active/active seeker head and a fully redesigned missile guidance electronics set. Other upgrades for the 5V27D missile include electrically driven steering gear and airlerons in place of air-driven ones to achieve a weight saving and improve control properties; adding a platformless inertial navigation system; an improved radio signal receiver; integration of a radar proximity fuse using new microelectronics hardware; replacing the missile control unit with a more current-generation counterpart. The 5V27D-М1 uses a combined guidance method (radio-inertial guidance in the mid-course and semi-active radar homing in the terminal phase)
enabling the missile’s kill envelope to be extended to 40 km for high speed maneuverable targets and to 45 km for low-speed targets. Other upgrades are to the UNV-M antenna post and UNK-M cabin to enable tracking of 3 targets simultaneously; and upgrades to the missile’s line-of-sight radio command transmitter would increase the number of missiles being guided simultaneously to six missiles or more. The 5V27D-М2 uses radio-inertial guidance in the mid-course and active radar homing in the terminal phase. This would enable extended kill envelopes of 40 km for high speed maneuverable targets and 45 km for lowspeed (≤ 300 m/s) targets. The upgrade would replace the UNV-M cabin on each launcher with a 36D6 radar station. The 3D radar supports tracking of up to 8 targets simultaneously, and up to 16 missiles will be able to be guided simultaneously due to upgrades to the launcher control equipment. The upgrades would keep the 5V27D missiles in service for another ten years.