Starting in September 2021, Russia has launched a series of small experimental satellites the purpose of which is not entirely clear. In previous posts they have been sometimes identified as EO MKA (probably зкспериментальный образец малого космического аппарата) and sometimes Razbeg. This post collects some information about the satellites (h/t BH), primarily to serve as a reference for corrections in previous posts. It will be updated as necessary. The first in the series of EO MKA is believed to be Cosmos-2551, launched in September 2021. It was followed by Cosmos-2555 in April 2022, Cosmos ..read more

On 9 February 2024, at 10:03:44 MSK (07:03:44 UTC) crews of the Air and Space Forces conducted a successful launch of a Souyz-2.1v launcher from the 43/4 launch pad of the Plesetsk test site. The satellite delivered into orbit was designated Cosmos-2575. It received international designation 2024-026A and registered by NORAD as object 58929. Cosmos-2575 was deployed on a circular orbit with altitude of about 330 km, which suggests that it is similar to the small imaging satellites of the EO MKA/Razbeg type. It is believed to be the second Razbeg/MKA-V satellite. Previous launch of a satellite ..read more

On 27 December 2023, at 10:03:44 MSK (07:03:44 UTC) crews of the Air and Space Forces conducted a successful launch of a Souyz-2.1v launcher from the 43/4 launch pad of the Plesetsk test site. The satellite delivered into orbit was designated Cosmos-2574. It received international designation 2023-209A and registered by NORAD as object 58658. Cosmos-2574 was deployed on a circular orbit with altitude of about 330 km, which suggests that it is similar to the small imaging satellites of the EO MKA/Razbeg type. It is believed to be a Razbeg #1/MKA-V satellite. Previous launch of a satellite of t ..read more

On 21 December 2023, at 11:48:39 MSK (08:48:39 UTC) crews of the Air and Space Forces conducted a successful launch of a Soyuz 2.1a launcher* from the launch pad No. 4 of the launch complex No. 43 of the Plesetsk test site. According to an official statement, the satellite is designated Cosmos-2573. It was registered as object 58614 by NORAD and received international designation 2023-201A. The satellite delivered into orbit is believed to be a digital cartographic satellite 14F148 Bars-M. This is the fifth launch of satellites of the Bars-M type. The previous launch took place in March 2023 ..read more

On 25 November 2023, at 23:58:07 MSK (20:58:07 UTC) crews of the Air and Space Forces conducted a successful launch of a Souyz-2.1b launcher from the 43/4 launch pad of the Plesetsk test site. The satellite delivered into orbit was designated Cosmos-2572. It received international designation 2023-182A and registered by NORAD as object 58435. Cosmos-2572 was deployed on a circular orbit with altitude of about 300 km. It is believed to be the first optical reconnaissance satellite of a new type, known as 4F156 Razdan ..read more

On 12 April 2024 at about 16:00 UTC the Strategic Rocket Forces conducted a successful launch of "an intercontinental ballistic missile from a road-mobile launcher." According to the official statement (safe link on Telegram, video of the launch), the launch was "part of the state tests of advanced missile systems" and it was also used "to confirm the stability of the currently deployed missile systems." The test is reported to be fully successful. The missile is believed to be a modified Topol-M ICBM, sometimes referred to as Topol-ME, used to test re-entry vehicles of intercontinental ballis ..read more

On 22 August 2023, Tula submarine of the Project 667BDRM class launched an R-29RMU.2 missile as part of a test, codenamed RS-31, of the S-500 Prometey air/missile defense system. The submarine was deployed in the Laptev Sea, the missile was launched in the direction of the Chizha test site in the Kola Peninsula. The date of the test was revealed in a documentary shown on Russian television ..read more

On 3 February 2024, Knyaz Pozharsky submarine of the Borey-A class was rolled out of the construction hall at the Sevmash shipbuilding plant. The construction of the submarine began in December 2016. It is the eight submarine of the Project 955/955A (Borey/Borey-A) series and the fourth serial production Borey-A submarine. Two more submarines of this class are under construction - Dmitry Donskoy and Knyaz Potemkin - both laid down in August 2021. According to the original plan, the production of this series was supposed to stop at eight submarines. The decision to order two additional ships wa ..read more

Russia began deployment of the EKS/Kupol space-based segment of its early-warning system in 2015, with a launch of Cosmos-2510 on 17 November 2015. That was the first of six Tundra launches - Cosmos-2518 in May 2017, Cosmos-2541 in September 2019, Cosmos-2546 in May 2020, Cosmos-2552 in November 2021, and Cosmos-2563 in November 2022. It appeared that the Air and Space Forces would launch one satellite annually, but I don't see a launch in 2023. The first two satellites worked for about five years. Their station-keeping maneuvered ended in late 2020 and late 2021 respectively. This leaves the ..read more

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potentially dangerous link to nuclear weapons is a quite popular topic these days. Some of it is because nobody really knows what the role of AI can be. It is a (relatively) new and quite exciting technology and it seems to offer some benefits in assessing complex situations. People also intuitively understand that there is a potential danger there - since we don't (normally) know how an AI system arrives to its conclusions, we cannot be certain that its assessment of a situation or its recommendations are correct (whatever that means). Given that when is c ..read more