The Russian Navy has tested for the first time from a ship the Pantsir-M surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery system, which is a naval version of the land mobile Pantsir-S1 system.
“The crew of the Odintsovo together with the representatives of the industry during the tests successfully performed missile and artillery fire at an air target from the Pantsir-M anti-aircraft missile and gun system. Small-sized M-6 aircraft targets, delivered by the Su-27 fighters of the Baltic Fleet naval aviation, were used as air targets”, – reported the Russian MoD, adding that all the assigned targets were successfully hit.
The live fire tests have been conducted from Baltic Navy’s 22800 Karakurt-class corvette Odintsovo – the first Navy’s platform armed with Pantsir-M.
Pantsir-M system, like the land Pantsir, is developed and produced by KBP Instrument Design Bureau (part of the Rostec’s High-Precision Weapons holding company).
“The distinctive feature of the system is the combination within a single turret mount of missile and artillery weapons and of the integrated radar-optical weapon control system, which increases its combat efficiency as compared to counterparts that have each type of weaponry separately. When repealing massive air raids of high precision weapons almost 100% kill probability of the targets is ensured due to 4-channel guidance system as well as firing at targets at three zones of approach – twice by SAMs and once by the guns with SAM launch interval being 2-3 s.”, – says KBP in its presentation of the export-oriented Pantsir-ME system.
Pantsir-ME was officially unveiled at the IDEX 2019 in Abu Dhabi by Rosoboronexport, the Russian state intermediary for military and dual-use exports and imports, celebrating this November its 20th anniversary.
According to Rosoboronexport, the Pantsir-ME provides protection from all types of aerial threats, including low-flying anti-ship missiles and UAVs, and is capable of engaging aerial targets flying at a distance of up to 20 kilometers and at an altitude of up to 15 kilometers. The system can be used against land targets as well.
