Jun 2: ChrisO_wiki, What happened to the radars in Moscow?
Thread published on May 31, 2023
ChrisO_wiki: What happened to the radars in Moscow?
Russia's missile defence system is supposed to be able to detect a football-sized object from 8,000 km away. However, corruption is said to have left it "full of holes" and the head of Russia's Space Forces may now face prosecution, as a scandal at the Russian MOD deepens.
I've previously highlighted the scandal, which has reportedly spawned a separate investigation into corruption in Russia's National Defence Control Centre (NDCC) that has led to the arrest of Major General Vyacheslav Lobuzko.
Corruption is also reported to be at the heart of the scandal affecting Russia's giant Voronezh radars. Contractors are said to have widely used cheap and unsuitable foreign-made components. Tests have reportedly found this has seriously affected the radars' performance.
The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that an inspection revealed a wide divergence between the performance claimed by the radar's manufacturer, RTI Systems, and the actual performance. This, however, is said to have been known about in the MOD but was covered up.
VChK-OGPU reports that the reason why is that "Alexander Golovko, Commander-in-Chief of the Space Forces and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Military Defence Forces, did not want to let down one of his closest friends, Major-General Vyacheslav Lobuzko."
Lobuzko became a senior manager in RTI's defence division after his retirement from the Space Forces in 2000. He worked for the company until 2019.
As VChK-OGPU puts it, "it was Lobuzko who, since 2006, actively promoted and controlled the money for the construction of Voronezh stations for the detection ballistic and cruise missiles.
"With his help, the military acceptance and command of the Aerospace Forces were put into operation and then put on combat duty new stations of the Missile Attack Warning System (SPRN) and signed contracts for the construction of the next radar stations."
Now, however, the corruption and cover-up appear to have been exposed. As a result, a source says that "the issue of bringing Golovko to criminal responsibility is currently under consideration."
Source: VChK-OGPU
Interesting to note that in 1960, Russia shot down an American U2 spy-plane at 70,000 feet, travelling at 500mph, with a surface-to-air missile.
Unfortunately they also shot down one of their own Migs lol.
My point is, they used to have the tech.
How the mighty has fallen!