MOSCOW, April 7Russia continues to work on the creation of anti-satellite warfare systems — the MiG-31D interceptor fighter with an anti-satellite missile and an aircraft with a combat laser based on the Il-76, follows from the publication of the Military Thought magazine published by the Ministry of Defense.
«Examples of Russian anti-satellite warfare systems , created on a relocated and mobile base, are: the Kontakt anti-space defense complex based on the MiG-31 heavy fighter-interceptor; the A60 Sokol-Eshelon combat laser system based on the Il-76 transport aircraft; the Peresvet combat laser system, — clarified in the material.
The last time officially on the ongoing work on the creation of an air-based anti-satellite missile system was in the open press in 2009. Then the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force announced that «the system is being revived» to solve the tasks of anti-satellite defense. In 2018, photographs of a carrier aircraft based on the MiG-31 with an unknown black missile under the fuselage, taken by a spotter in the Moscow region, circulated on the Internet. The projectile was regarded in several specialized publications as a mock-up of an anti-satellite munition.
According to open sources, the development of a new aircraft-based complex designed to destroy low-orbit spacecraft is based on the existing extensive scientific and technical reserve and newly developed technologies. Work on a similar system based on the MiG-31D carrier aircraft and the 79M6 Kontakt missile was carried out back in Soviet times since 1984.
The A-60 laser weapon carrier aircraft based on the Il-76MD transport aircraft also began to be created in the USSR , the A-60 flying laboratory made its first flight in 1981. According to open sources, the aircraft was supposed to carry a megawatt combat laser on board to destroy low-flying satellites.
In 2016, Yuri Borisov, who was then Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, said that the development of the A-60 complex was moving forward. The last time the project of the so-called laser aircraft was officially mentioned was in 2020 — then TNTK im. Berieva issued a patent for the developed carrier aircraft of the combat laser system. This includes information about a computer model of an aircraft based on the military transport Il-76MD-90A.