The Russian defence concern chargeable for air defence manufacturing, Almaz-Antey, has in 2025 greater than doubled its output of missiles for the S-400 lengthy vary surface-to-air missile system, in addition to for the medium vary S-350 system. Demand for the S-400 from the Russian Aerospace Forces stays excessive, whereas the agency not solely has excellent orders from the Indian Defence Ministry, however can also be anticipated to obtain additional Indian orders beneath a contact that’s at present being negotiated. This follows excessive ranges of satisfaction expressed by the Indian navy management after the S-400 performed a central position in air defence efforts in opposition to Pakistan in Could. The Russian Aerospace Forces depend on the S-400 as the first asset for defending the nation’s airspace, with over 35 regiments at present in service, whereas investments in procuring the system have far exceeded these in procuring all lessons of fighter plane mixed over the previous three many years.
Reporting on the manufacturing enhance, Almaz-Antey said in a press launch: “The commissioning of latest manufacturing amenities allowed the priority not solely to ship some gear to the troops forward of schedule, but in addition to quadruple the manufacturing of a variety of merchandise and enhance the output of different missile methods.” “Over the previous 12 months alone, the manufacturing of technical gear for the S-350 Vityaz and S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile methods has greater than doubled, and serial manufacturing of latest forms of missile weapons has been mastered,” it added. Even earlier than the newest manufacturing enhance, S-400 was already in manufacturing on a bigger scale than another lengthy vary air defence system on the planet. Russian President Vladimir Putin in January 2023 alluded to the dimensions of the nation’s productive capability for floor to air missile methods, claiming on a go to to the Obukhovsky Plant in St. Petersburg that this one facility had a larger capability than the remainder of the world mixed. This assertion was extensively questioned.
Giant scale procurement of the S-400 has been facilitated by main investments in rejuvenation of the Russian surface-to-air missile trade, which was authorised by the Kremlin within the 12 months 2000. Three main new amenities ordered constructed for producing missile methods, together with a brand new wing of the Obukhov Plant, the Avitek Plant in Kirov which was throughly modernised, and the NMP Plant in Nizhniy Novgorod. Severe delays meant these amenities had been solely prepared for giant scale manufacturing within the mid-2010s, with deliveries having escalated considerably since them, permitting a number of regiments price of S-400s to be produced yearly alongside manufacturing of different lengthy ranged methods such because the S-300V4 and S-500.
The S-400 has been fight examined a number of occasions throughout ongoing hostilities within the Ukrainian theatre, with its longest ranged missile class the 40N6 additionally being examined. The missile achieves a really lengthy focusing on vary over the earth’s curvature by utilizing focusing on knowledge both from ahead deployed floor primarily based radars, or from airborne radars, with a two half trajectory that first sees it ascend to altitudes of near 30,000 meters, earlier than descending utilizing this focusing on knowledge to strike over the horizon. The missile noticed its first use overseas in Could when utilized by the Indian Air Power to destroy excessive worth Pakistani plane.
