Russia’s Hypersonic Missile-Hunting Radar to Enter Combat Duty near Norway Border by late 2021

One of Russia’s Rezonans-N anti-hypersonic missile radar will enter combat service in the Arctic, some 30km away from the border with Norway, by the end of this year.

The first of these radars was deployed on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in November last year. They have been operating near the towns of Shoina and Indiga.

“The third Rezonans-N radar station will go on combat duty on Novaya Zemlya this May or June,” Alexander Shramchenko, Rezonans Science and Research Center Director General, was quoted as saying by TASS today.

Two more stations, the fourth and fifth overall, will enter service in the Arctic region – in Gremikha and Zapolyarnoye – by late 2021. The radar in Zapolyarnoye, very close to the Russian-Norwegian border, will ensure “round-the-clock control of airspace above northern regions of Norway and Finland.”

Rezonans radars operate in the meter band and employ the principle of wave resonance, which allows detecting aircraft based on stealth technology and also hypersonic targets flying at a speed of up to Mach 2.0. It can detect ballistic missiles flying at an altitude of 100 km from 1,200 km away.

Russia is also deploying a new, long-range radar to monitor launches of cruise and hypersonic missiles over entire Europe.