Dunay radar ( rus, Дунай, Dunay literally

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

;

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

: Cat House, Dog House) was a system of two Soviet radars used to detect American ballistic missiles fired at

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. They were part of the A-35 anti-ballistic missile system. One sector of one of the radars, the Dunay-3U ("Cat House") is still operational and is run by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces as part of the Main Control Centre of Outer Space.

Dunay-2

The Dunay-2 was a prototype built in Sary Shagan as part of the experimental

missile defence Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ...

system "A". It consisted of separate transmitter and receiver complexes separated by . The power of the radar was 100 kW and its range was . The NATO codename was "Hen Roost".

Dunay-3M

The Dunay-3 ( rus, Дунай-3М, Dunay-3M;

: Dog House) was an upgrade of the Dunay-2 located in Kubinka, Moscow and became operational in 1968. Following an extensive upgrade in 1978 it was renamed Dunay-3M as part of the upgraded A-35M ABM system. It consisted of separate receiver and transmitter buildings separated by . The transmitter covered two sectors (roughly north and south) and its array was long and high. The power of each sector was about . The receiver was a building × containing 2 passive electronically scanned array radars as well as the

command and control Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...

centre for the A-35 system. The range of the system was . The radar was functional until it caught fire on 8 May 1988.

Dunay-3UP

This was a prototype of the Dunay-3U and was located in Sary Shagan test site. It was given the NATO codename "Top Roost".

Dunay-3U

The Dunay-3U ( rus, Дунай-3У, Dunay-3U;

: Cat House) was built in 1978 as part of the upgraded A-35M anti-ballistic missile system. It is located in Chekhov and was structurally similar to the Dunay-3M – it has a separate receiver and transmitter separated by . There are two sectors. It was capable of identifying the launch of

Pershing II The Pershing II Weapon System was a solid-fuel rocket, solid-fueled multistage rocket, two-stage medium-range ballistic missile designed and built by Martin Marietta to replace the Pershing 1a Field Artillery Missile System as the United States ...

missiles from West Germany. In 1995 A-35M was replaced by the

A-135 anti-ballistic missile system The A-135 (renamed to A-235) (NATO: ABM-4 Gorgon) is a Russian anti-ballistic missile system deployed around Moscow to intercept incoming warheads targeting the city or its surrounding areas. The system was designed in the Soviet Union and entered ...

which used the Don-2N radar. One sector was decommissioned in 1998 and is now ruined and the other is used for space surveillance of satellites in

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

. As a

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

radar it can identify smaller objects (15–40 cm) than the

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

radars such as the Daryal and

Dnepr Dnepr may refer to: *Dnieper, a river flowing through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea * Dnepr (motorcycle), a Ukraininan motocycle brand * Dnepr (rocket), a 1999 space launch vehicle *Dnepr radar Dnepr may refer to: *Dnieper, a river ...

. The Dunay-3U was commissioned in May 1978 with a life of 12 years. Both sectors were extended until 2000 but one sector (62) was decommissioned in 1998. The other one (61) has been extended in 2001 and 2005 – the last extension was until December 2009, but it may have been extended again. In 2012 the Russian Ministry of Defence issued a tender for the demolition of sector 62. Before 2003 the transmitter had 30 waveguides each excited by a transmitter. Since 2003 the station has been operating at a reduced power of rather than , with 12 transmitters (out of 24) rather than the previous maximum of 30. The radar is

chirp A chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases (''up-chirp'') or decreases (''down-chirp'') with time. In some sources, the term ''chirp'' is used interchangeably with sweep signal. It is commonly applied to sonar, radar, and laser system ...

ed. The radar's computer system is made up of 10 K340 computers.

Locations

References

External links

Urban exploration photos from a visit to one sector of the Dunay-3UPlan of Dunay-3U receiver site (in Russian)Plan of Dunay-3U transmitter site (in Russian)Photograph of Dunay-3M receiver from VympelPhotograph of Dunay-3U receiver from VympelPhotograph of Dunay-3U transmitter from Vympel
{{Soviet Radar Russian and Soviet military radars Missile defense Russian Space Forces Military equipment introduced in the 1950s