Russia Plans Space-based Military Radar

Russia plans to develop a satellite-based radar system for the use of its armed forces. 

The new system will help create a precise 3D model of Earth as well as tracking ground objects. "In the beginning of 2015, the Defense Industrial Commission decided that Russia will develop the system on its own. Then, a roadmap was agreed," an official was quoted as saying by the Russian newspaper Izvestia.

According to the project design, the system will comprise five satellites. The first launch is scheduled for 2019. The key component of the new system is an active phased array antenna for the on-board radar station.

Russia’s Roselektronika is expected to develop, test and unveil the first Russian-made transmitter-receiver device in the first quarter of 2016. Earlier the Defense Ministry wanted to purchase a radar system from Airbus Defense and Space (ADS).

In 2013, Russia’s Lavochkin Research and Production Association won the tender. The company was expected to buy electronic parts for the radar from ADS and then mount them on the satellite platform but following the West imposed sanctions against a number of Russian companies over the Ukrainian crisis, Russia decided to develop the entire system in the nation itself. If the project is successful Russia could export such systems, specialists said.