Russia’s “Fire Dragon”: The New, SA-28 Vityaz Missile System

By: Warren Gray

Copyright © 2023

“We have developed a good and compact system that performs all of its functions

 far better than its predecessors. As its fundamental difference from all other similar systems, the Vityaz is capable of quickly aiming its missiles and scanning the space.

The weapon can effectively strike both existing and future air attack weapons.”

— Yan Novikov, CEO of Almaz-Antey Corporation.

The Russian Federation’s latest air defense missile system is the Almaz-Antey S-350 Vityaz (“Knight”), officially designated by NATO as the SA-28 and introduced into operational service in February 2020. Often nicknamed the “Fire Dragon,” it was specifically designed to replace older S-300PS (SA-10D Grumble), Buk-M1 (SA-11 Gadfly), and Buk-M2 (SA-17 Grizzly) missile systems but using some of the same, optional 9M96E2 missiles as the frontline, S-400 Triumf (SA-21B Growler). The SA-28 is a highly mobile system mounted upon a BAZ-6909 eight-wheeled, 8×8 special vehicle, powered by a 470-horsepower diesel engine. Yes, there is also an SA-29 missile, the shoulder-fired Verba (“Willow”), but it was previously designated the SA-25 and is actually an older system in service since 2015.

A typical SA-28 firing battery consists of one or two 50N6A multifunctional, passively electronically scanned array (PESA) radars with a target-detection range of 248 miles, one 50K6A mobile command-post vehicle, and four or more (up to eight) 50P6A launch vehicles.

SA-28 Vityaz 50N6A radar system. Vitaly V. Kuzmin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Each 50P6A mobile launch vehicle carries 12 x 9M96E2 vertically launched, 18.5-foot-long active-radar-guided missiles with thrust vectoring and a maximum range of 75 miles. Shorter-range (25 miles) 9M96E missiles may also be employed, especially on the S-350E Vityaz export model for Algeria, while the Russians prefer the longer-range version. A short-range (9.3 miles), infrared-guided, heat-seeking, 8.2-foot-long, 9M100 missile is also available for last-ditch, point-defense engagements.

The primary 9M96E2 missile can hit aerial targets as low as 33 feet or as high as 98,000 feet with a claimed 90-percent probability of a kill against aircraft. This diverse armaments suite makes the SA-28 a highly-flexible air defense system, deadly against a wide range of threats from glide bombs to jet fighters to cruise missiles.

9M96E2 and 9M96E missiles. Photo credit: TurboSquid.com

Each launch vehicle holds 12 ready-to-fire missiles with 24 more in reserve, so a firing battery has a total of 144 missiles at its disposal. Using two radars, the SA-28 system can track up to 80 targets simultaneously and instantly engage 16 targets with as many as 32 missiles at the same time. The missiles travel at a blazing speed of Mach 5+ and are reportedly maneuverable up to 60gs, which can successfully destroy any aerial target maneuvering at up to 15gs. A human pilot can only withstand up to about 9gs, so 15gs is quite substantial. The mobile firing battery can set up almost anywhere and be fully operational in as little as five minutes.

Well, prior to its official fielding with Russian forces, the SA-28 “Fire Dragon” was apparently combat tested in September 2017 on the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range, or Nusayri Mountains, at a former Syrian SA-5B Gammon long-range missile site eight miles southwest of Masyaf, near Wadi Aloyon, at a lofty elevation of 3,520 feet.

The first operational deployment on Russian soil was confirmed at Novyi Uchkhoz, Russia, with the 500th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment along Route 41K-102, just inside the Saint Petersburg ring highway (Cheremykinskoye Shosse), only 62 miles from the border town of Narva, Estonia, in February 2020. This was to help protect the ring of defensive SA-21B Growler missile sites (at least five firing batteries within 40 miles) southwest of the major city.

On August 14, 2022, the Russian Social Network “VK” published very recent official photos from the first SA-28 missile deployment to an airfield used for the war in Ukraine. Russian Ministry of Defense photos taken at Taganrog Tsentralnyi Air Base, home of the 708th Military Transport Aviation Regiment (with 20 x Il-76MD Candid-B jet transport aircraft), only 32 miles from the Ukrainian border and 75 miles from the front lines of battle, clearly showed an upright 50N6A fire-control radar and a ready-to-fire, 50P6A missile launcher near the runway as a camouflaged Su-25SM3 Frogfoot-A Mod. 3 ground-attack fighter took off in the background.

SA-28 Vityaz missile system and Su-25SM3 fighter at Taganrog Air Base, August 12, 2022. Russian Ministry of Defense photo.

Neither the SA-28 firing battery nor the Su-25 fighter-bombers were present in February 2022 satellite imagery of Taganrog, just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so they were forward-deployed there later, believed to be in mid-April 2022. The Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft are not based at Taganrog but were instead forward deployed from elements of the 18th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment at Chernigova, 266th Assault Aviation Regiment at Step/Olovyannaya, and the 368th Assault Aviation Regiment at Budyonnovsk.

Thus far, the only export customer has been the Algerian Land Forces, which have arrayed their downgraded S-350E models with 25-mile missiles near the Moroccan border, as confirmed by the EurAsian Times. Russia exhibited the SA-28 export system at the Zhuhai Air Show in communist China from November 8 to 13, 2022.

Yan Novikov, CEO of Almaz-Antey Corporation, stated that, “The S-350 (SA-28) is compatible with all air defense systems and can get information from other complexes and operate as a second-tier posture in conjunction with S-400 (SA-21B) air defenses, increasing the density of surface-to-air fire. The Vityaz is capable of providing air defense on its own. There are no other medium-range systems with such characteristics in the world…It is especially effective against low-flying missiles and air targets that try to merge their radar pattern with the terrain to evade detection.”

The new SA-28 Vityaz system provides medium-range and short-range air defense protection against incoming fighters, bombers, helicopters, drones, cruise missiles, or even glide bombs, especially in scenarios involving a “swarm” attack by multiple, airborne threats at the same time. With 48 ready-to-fire missiles capable of reaching out as far as 75 miles and as low as 33 feet, it’ll be very difficult to successfully evade the Vityaz’s rapid-fire ability.

Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, stated that, “An S-350 division (firing battery) can repel a massive strike using its missiles. This is the key difference from the S-400 (SA-21B.)” The SA-28’s major role is in countering adversary, precision weapons under any situation.

In 2020, the Russian Federation ordered four batteries of SA-28s, totaling about 30 to 32 launch vehicles. Some estimates predict that up to 12 firing batteries will be deployed nationwide by 2027. The unit at Novyi Uchkhoz near Saint Petersburg is the first confirmed, permanent assignment for the Vityaz so far, except for a few vehicles at the Zhukov Air and Space Defence Academy in Tver, 90 miles northwest of Moscow, for training new air defense missile officers.

Other regiments slated to receive the SA-28 are located in Khakassia (Central Military District in southern Siberia near Mongolia), Achinsk (Krasnoyarsk Krai in south-central Russia just north of Khakassia) in 2025, and probably one more unit in Siberia. The forward-deployed missiles at Taganrog may still be there as well, defending the vital air base during the ongoing, Russo-Ukrainian War.

The SA-28 Vityaz/“Fire Dragon” air defense missile system has 34-percent longer range than the once-mighty SA-10D Grumble system that it replaces, with twice as many loaded missiles, which can be fired at a very rapid, even overwhelming rate. Probably the best way to describe the new SA-28 is as the accurate, agile, quick-firing, undisputed, “assault rifle” of surface-to-air missiles!

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Warren Gray is a retired, U.S. Air Force intelligence officer (and missile officer for four years) with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism. He served in Europe, including Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, four college degrees, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author, historian, and hunter. You may view his website at: warrengray54.com.