sohamn wrote:
Can you clarify if the blind spot is with the S300 or with the FCS? Any why. What is the problem with having just one FCR?
Also, why can't the Air search radar i.e. Fregat pick up the missile for early detection? Won't the ship crew have enough time to enable the CWIS ?
So blind spot exists with any command/semi active (incl track via missile) guidance , for example with a land based S-300 battery which uses track via missile guidance it can intercept simultaneous targets that are in same azimuth of engagement radar.
To make up for that weakness you layer it with additional engagement radars so you can handle a saturation attack or have layered air defense. But it’s not as big problem for land based system (that doesn’t mean it hasn’t exploited see Israeli strikes in Syria or Azerbaijan strikes on Armenia S-300) as it is for naval ships where a single platform might have to operate alone and can be targeted.
When Soviets decided to navalize S-300 they had to adapt the monstrous engagement radar as well for naval purpose and nothing short of cruiser could carry even one. So this goes back our saturation attack point that means you can only intercept targets in one plane and to make matters worse the size of radar (top dome) meant it cannot be mounted on mast. So the radar is located to the aft this location meant the superstructure will effectively obstruct visibility to any targets (Kirov has two radars for this reason).
That’s why Delhi’s which uses Shtil which is based on Buk (uses semi active guidance) have 4 Orekh FCR (even though land based variant has only 1) to better deal with such saturation attacks, of course with Shtil you can have many FCR since it is smaller radar since it’s range is only 30 or so km vs 100+ for RIF.
As for why didn’t Fregat detect it earlier keep in mind it uses very old version of Fregat, if it can detect an Ashm even 15 km away I would be impressed (less than a minute warning). If ship and front dome where pointed at TB2. The crew had to be on point and immediately refocus on new threat (they didn’t expect Ukraine to fire AshM) so they likely weren’t and by the time they were able to realize the threat it was likely too late given the time to re orient the ship and the radar.
But I would caution I am guessing this is what might have happened based on social media posts. For example with INS Hanit there was lot of theories on why Barak-1 and phalanx failed in the end it turned out the crew switched off defenses..
