The A-135 (NATO: ABM-4 Gorgon) is a Russian anti-ballistic missile system deployed around Moscow to intercept incoming warheads targeting the city or its surrounding areas. The system was designed in the Soviet Union and entered service in 1995. It is a successor to the previous A-35, and complies with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
The system is operated by the 9th Division of Anti-Missile Defence, part of the Air Defence and Missile Defence Command of the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.
Loading the 53T6M missile transport and launch container on the 77Yu6.2 Transporter-erector machine with KamAZ Semi-trailer truck
Transportation of the 53T6M missile on the 77Yu6.2 Transporter-erector machine with KamAZ Semi-trailer truck
Loading the 53T6M missile in silo
Structure
A-135 consists of the Don-2N battle management radar and two types of ABM missiles. It gets its data from the wider Russian early-warning radar network, that are sent to the command centre which then forwards tracking data to the Don-2N radar. The Don-2N radar is a large battle-management phased array radar with 360° coverage. Tests were undertaken at the prototype Don-2NP in Sary Shagan in 2007 to upgrade its software.
Russian early-warning radar network consists of:
- Daryal bistatic active phased array early-warning radars
- Dnepr/Dnestr space surveillance early-warning radars
- Voronezh phased array early-warning radars
- US-KMO, US-K and EKS early-warning satellites
- Command, control, communications and intelligence services.
Don-2N radar
Command, control and communications center
Photo credit Евгений Кель
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