Counter-drone defence around Moscow: Russia builds more than 50 new air defence positions

The Russian army has now built more than 50 new air defence positions in and around Moscow, considerably expanding the capital's counter-drone defence. The trigger was the first attacks by Ukrainian drones on the city in May 2023.

Air warfare experts and observers worldwide are closely following Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. After all, the most intense long-range strike battle in history is currently being fought over Ukraine and at least over the European part of Russia: no previous war has seen so many long-range weapons fired.

Both sides aim to overcome the coordination and defensive capabilities of the opposing air defence – and they succeed. When the protective shield collapses under saturation, both sides score hits. On both sides, the targets hit are military, strategic-economic ones such as the defence or export industry, but also civilian.

The Russian military has always paid the greatest attention to the capital Moscow – the country's most important political, economic and social centre.

Air defence rings since Soviet times

The Soviet Union already laid several air defence “rings” around Moscow. The first ring ran at a radius of 75 to 90 kilometres from the city centre. The second, the so-called “small defence ring of Moscow”, lay 35 to 50 kilometres from the Kremlin (see map). In addition, there was a separate system intended to defend against ballistic missiles.

Two ring roads of primarily military importance connected these positions. They ensured the supply of the surface-to-air missile units.

How effective – or ineffective – the system was, the German Mathias Rust tested on 28 May 1987: he flew a Cessna 172 from Helsinki into central Moscow and landed near Red Square at around 18:40.

When the Cold War ended, only a small number of the more than 50 sites remained in operation. Since mid-2023, however, Russia has again been massively expanding the air defence around Moscow.

New counter-drone defence along the ring motorways

As in Soviet times, the layout of the new air defence positions follows the road network. Most of the new sites are located between the Moscow Automobile Ring Road MKAD (МКАД), which is 108.9 kilometres long, and the Central Ring Road A113 TsKAD (ЦКАД), which winds 336.5 kilometres around Moscow.

Isolated positions are also reappearing on the third ring around Moscow – the A108, also known as the Moscow Big Ring or Second Concrete Ring. In Soviet times, around 30 air defence positions lay along the A108.

Within the MKAD, three sites stand out, each hosting a Pantsir S-1 air defence system:

• on the roof of the Petrovsky Barracks, seat of the Moscow city headquarters of the Russian Interior Ministry, about two kilometres north of the Kremlin,
• on an administrative building just inside the Garden Ring, about two kilometres east of the Kremlin, and
• on the helicopter pad of the Ministry of Defence on the Moskva, opposite Gorky Park, about three kilometres south-west of the Kremlin.

Away from the centre, elevations are used wherever possible – such as reclaimed landfill mounds. There are also built-up ramps onto which air defence systems can drive.

Most striking, however, are steel towers more than 20 metres high, onto which air defence systems are lifted by crane.

The reason for these designs lies in the geography of the Moscow region. Natural elevations are lacking, yet the sensors of the air defence systems in particular need as clear and wide a field of view as possible.

Notably, not all new positions are permanently manned. It is unknown whether they are simply alternate positions for tactical reasons or whether the defence industry cannot deliver the systems.

Mark Krutov of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty meticulously records the positions found on a map.

The last count was several months ago. At the time, Ukrainian experts counted 22 to 25 surface-to-air missile systems of the older S-300/S-400 types in and around Moscow, three of the more modern long-range S-350 system and two S-500 missile defence systems. How many short- and medium-range Pantsir S-1, BUK and TOR systems are present remained unclear.

What falls from the sky

Photos of missile debris and damaged buildings make clear that air defence in the city is a double-edged sword. Destroyed and intercepted drones do not stay in the air either – everything comes back down.

At best, the debris falls on open ground. But buildings are also damaged: from shattered windows and wrecked facades to pierced roofs.