S-500 missile system ("beyond the imagination")

• Place of origin :  Russia
• Designer :  Almaz - Antey
• Operational range :  600 km (370 mile)
• Produced :  2014 - present
• In service : 2025  (planned)          

Russia's newest S-500 Prometheus mobile air and space defense complex is expected to enter service this year (2020).The Defense Ministry is allegedly planning to order five S-500 complexes capable of intercepting ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

The long-range high intercept S-500 complex with extended ballistic missile defense capabilities is planned to enter operational readiness in 2016.

The S-500 will be capable of simultaneously engaging up to 10 targets traveling at speeds of up to seven kilometers per second, which is an approximate speed of intercontinental ballistic missile nuclear warheads entering the atmosphere.The killing range of the complex is reported to be 600 kilometers, while the altitude of a target engaged could be near 180-200 kilometers.

Russian Aerospace Forces are reportedly planning to purchase five S-500 complexes up to the year 2020.The S-500 complexes are going to be integrated into the A-135 (and successive A-235) Moscow air defense system.

SPACE  DEFENSE  ABILITY

S-500 anti missile system will be unrivaled by any other similar technology in the world. It is also the first in a new class of space-defense weaponry.

The main task of the S-500 is neutralizing mid-range ballistic missiles, but it can also bring down the warheads of intercontinental missiles, as well as warplanes, drones and more.

It is also designed to eliminate hypersonic weapons and satellites in low-Earth orbit, which makes it a first-generation example of space defense hardware. The system's characteristics also "allow it destroy.......hypersonic weapons of all modifications, including in near space".

The S-500 Prometey, a combined surface-to-air and anti-ballistic missile system, was successfully tested in 2019.

  

Earlier, the head of state-owned defense giant Rostech,  Sergey Chemezov, said that there won't be any export sales of S-500s in the next five years, explaining that "we must first fully supply our own army."