Baranavichy Radar Station (russian: Узел «Барановичи») (sometimes wrongly named GantsavichyThe names vary as the station may be wrongly named after the nearby town of Hantsavichy, but with different

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

s depending on whether we consider the name to be Russian or Belarusian. The character Г is a G in Russian and an H in Belarusian. Using the BGN/PCGN Romanisation standard the Belarusian name Га́нцавічы would be written as Hantsavichy and using Wikipedia's Russian Romanisation standard the Russian name Ганцевичи would be written as Gantsevichi) is a 70M6 Volga-type

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

near Hantsavichy (48 km from Baranavichy in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

). It is an

early warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum t ...

, which is run by the

Russian Space Forces The Russian Space Forces ( rus, Космические войска России, Kosmicheskie voyska Rossii, KV) are a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, that provides aerospace warning, air and space sovereignty, and other related protect ...

. It is designed to identify launches of

ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...

s from western Europe and can also track some artificial satellites, partly replacing the demolished radar station at

Skrunda Skrunda (; german: Schrunden) is a town in the Courland region of Latvia. It lies 150 km (95 mi) west of the capital city Riga in Kuldīga Municipality. History The historical sources first mentioned Skrunda (german: Schrunden) in th ...

in Latvia.

History

The Volga was developed by

NIIDAR The NIIDAR company, the ''Scientific and Research Institute for Long-Distance Radio Communications'' (russian: Научно-исследовательский институт дальней радиосвязи) is a Russian manufacturer of radar ...

from the Dunay-3U radar. Construction started in 1982 to counter the installation of

Pershing II The Pershing II Weapon System was a solid-fueled 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 Army's primary nuclear-capable thea ...

missiles in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

which were only 6 to 8 minutes away in flight time. These intermediate missiles were eliminated by the

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty, formally the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles; / ДРСМ� ...

, which was signed in December 1987. Work still continued on the radar even though the Pershing missiles had been removed. The radar was not compliant with the 1972

ABM treaty The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty or ABMT) (1972–2002) was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against ballisti ...

as this forbade multifunction radars. The Volga was in breach of this as it was designed to guide anti-ballistic missiles (an 'ABM radar') as well as acting as an early warning radar. As the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

had managed to get the

Daryal radar The Daryal-type radar () (NATO: Pechora) is a Soviet bistatic early-warning radar. It consists of two separate large active phased-array antennas separated by around to . The transmitter array is and the receiver is in size. The system is a ...

Yeniseysk Yeniseysk ( rus, Енисейск, p=jɪnʲɪˈsʲejsk) is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 (1970). History Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenise ...

demolished for being in breach of the treaty the Soviet Union removed ABM radar abilities from the Volga as it was being built. Work on the radar stopped in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. It restarted in 1993 once it became apparent that Russia would lose the early warning station in

and with it coverage of missiles from the north west. Some testing took place in 1994 and in 1995 a 25-year agreement was signed between Russia and Belarus giving Russia a 25-year lease on the ground and all buildings with no taxes and with no charge made for communication channels. The lease was extended in 2021. When the Dnestr-M radars in Skrunda were shut down in 1998 Russia restarted the construction of the Volga. Test operations started in 1999 and pilot operations in 2002. It was finally commissioned on 1 October 2003. The radar was upgraded in 2016. One of the manufacturers was quoted as saying that two other Volga installations were once planned - one at Komsomolsk-na-Amur and one at

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

. Another source says that a Volga was originally planned in

Biysk Biysk ( rus, Бийск, p=bʲijsk) is a city in Altai Krai, Russia, located on the Biya River not far from its confluence with the Katun River. It is the second largest city of the krai (after Barnaul, the administrative center of the krai). Popu ...

in Altai Krai to provide coverage of China.

Volga radar

The station, classed as a 'Volga' type, is similar to a

but operates on the UHF band rather than the VHF of the Daryal. Like the Daryal it has a separate transmitter and receiver stations which in the case of the Volga are apart. The radar has an Active Electronically Scanned Array, a type of phased array. It continuously radiates such that it is receiving and transmitting at the same time. The array consists of spiral radiators which rotate in different directions in the receiver and transmitter. The transmitter array is and the receiver array is . Both arrays are surrounded by a ferrite frame which absorbs radio waves. The Volga has a range of around and an

azimuth An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north. Mathematical ...

of 120°, with

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of 4° to 70°. Its

GRAU index The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the ...

is 70M6 .

The site

The radar is 8 km north east of Hantavichy and from Baranavichy. It is in the Hantsavichy Raion of the

Brest Region Brest Region or Brest Oblast or Brest Voblasts ( be, Брэ́сцкая во́бласць ''(Bresckaja vobłasć)''; russian: Бре́стская о́бласть (''Brestskaya Oblast)'') is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative cen ...

of Belarus. The military town for the radar is called Kletsk-2 ( rus, Клецк-2). When the station opened it was stated that up to 200 local Belarusians could be employed there. In 2007 ''Kommersant'' estimated that 600 people worked at the station.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hantsavichy Radar Station Russian and Soviet military radars Russian Space Forces Military installations of Russia in other countries Military equipment introduced in the 2000s Military locations of Belarus