At the "Military-2021" International Military Technology Forum, the Izhevsk Dome Electromechanical Plant in Russia announced that it has started developing a new generation of "Dole" air defense system, greatly improving the combat performance of the "Dole" system, responding to various new air strike weapons such as drones and patrol missiles, and forming a multi-layer defense system with medium and long-range air defense systems to jointly change the future air defense combat situation.

The "Doyle" air defense missile system was developed and finalized in 1984, and was deployed to Soviet forces in 1986. It has a development history of more than 30 years and has undergone multiple modernization upgrades. It is one of the important components of Russia's multi-level air defense system.

The "Doyle" air defense missile system is an all-weather low altitude air defense missile system jointly developed by the Moscow Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Sciences and the Izhevsk Dome Mechanical and Electrical Plant. The system code is 9K330 and the missile code is 9M330.

The "Doyle" air defense system is the world's first system to use vertical launch in low altitude short-range air defense missile systems. It is also the first short-range air defense missile system to integrate target search, detection and tracking, and missile launch into a single vehicle. It can operate 24/7 and mainly targets low air fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, drones, cruise missiles, and air to ground missiles.

The "Doyle" air defense missile system was developed in the late 1970s to replace the "Hornet" short-range air defense missile system. The improved versions of "Daoer" mainly include "Daoer-M1" and "Daoer-M2".

The main performance of the "Doyle" air defense missile system

The code name of the "Dao'er" - M1 air defense missile system is 9K331, the missile code is 9M331, and the derivative models are "Dao'er" - M1A and "Dao'er" - M1T.

The maximum detection range of the search radar of the "Daoer-M1" air defense missile system is 25 kilometers, which can make judgments on 48 incoming targets and track 10 of them; Tracking radar can guide missiles to attack two targets simultaneously; The system is equipped with 8 missiles, vertically mounted in 2 sealed 4-carrier launch boxes, and carried on a modified GM-569 medium tracked armored transport vehicle; The system response time is 5-8 seconds.

In 2008, Russia launched the Dole-M2 air defense missile system, with derivative models including Dole-M2KM, Dole-M2U, and Dole-M2DT.

The "Dole-M2" air defense missile system can shoot down anti radiation missiles flying at ultra-low altitudes, protecting the army's mechanized units located 8-10 kilometers away from the battlefield; Adopting 9M338K missile, with a maximum range of 16 kilometers, a maximum combat altitude of 10 kilometers, and a maximum flight speed of 1000 meters per second; The missile size is smaller, and the payload capacity has increased to 16 missiles, greatly increasing the firepower density; The DT-30PM-T1 articulated tracked all terrain vehicle is used as the system mounting platform.

The "Doyle" air defense system is the world's first vertical launched short-range air defense missile system, and is also an all-weather, highly automated air defense missile system that integrates target search and tracking with missile launch. It can effectively provide accompanying field air defense for the army's mechanized units, and is also an important component of Russia's long-range, medium range, and short-range multi-layer interception air defense system.

（1） The combat system is highly integrated and modular, with high mobility and concealment

The "Doyle" air defense missile system highly integrates the launch module and control module into the chassis of tracked amphibious vehicles or wheeled armored vehicles, greatly enhancing the maneuverability and concealment of the air defense missile system. The modular 'Doyle' air defense missile system can be placed on any platform with a carrying capacity of more than 20 tons, including heavy trucks, trailers, ships, etc., improving the concealment and survivability of the air defense system.

（2） Strong target recognition and anti-interference capabilities, high degree of automation in command and control

The "Doyle" air defense missile system is based on biomimetics and has designed a visual system that can recognize moving targets. From a technical perspective, the system has powerful performance and can accurately locate the Mi-8 helicopter.

The 'Doyle' system is equipped with a passive phased array radar, which has strong resistance to active and passive interference; It is also equipped with an automatic command and control module, which can integrate the "Doer" system with other medium and long-range surface to air missile systems into a unified air defense system, effectively improving the defense capability of the Russian field air defense system against precision guided weapons and multi-purpose drones.

（3） Adopting miniaturized air defense missiles, with high accuracy in hitting targets at long combat distances

The latest improved version of the "Dole" family, the "Dole-M2" air defense missile system, retains the original architecture of the system and adopts a smaller and more powerful 9M338 new air defense missile with a maximum combat distance of 16 kilometers; By adopting advanced digital autopilot technology, the accuracy of hits is greatly enhanced.

The main performance and overall combat effectiveness of the Dole-M2 system missile are superior to other air defense missiles of the same period and type in the world.

In October 2020, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it would develop a new missile for the Dol-M2, which is smaller, lighter, and more cost-effective than existing interceptors, to strike drones.

According to the analysis of the speech by the head of the Izhevsk Dome Electromechanical Factory at the "Military-2021" forum, Russia is developing a new version of the "Dol" air defense missile system for the future and will soon enter the national testing phase.

Based on public information reports and the development history of the "Doer" air defense missile system, it can be inferred that the main ideas and approaches for its modernization and upgrading are reflected in the following five aspects.

（1） Improve the performance of missile power systems

The head of the Izhevsk Dome Electromechanical Plant emphasized that the new generation of "Doer" missiles will exceed the performance range of current short-range air defense systems and be used to strike hypersonic weapons. To this end, the power system of the "Doyle" missile will be continuously upgraded, significantly improving the missile's range, flight speed, and hit accuracy.

The main improvements include equipping thrust vectoring control engines, increasing the missile's thrust to weight ratio, and improving the missile's maneuverability overload capacity.

（2） Seeking to adopt a dual-mode guidance system

The "Dower" air defense missile system adopts an instruction system, which binds the missile and guidance radar together throughout the entire process. Once the missile system enters the lower part of the combat area, it enters the radar blind spot, causing the "Dower" missile to immediately lose the ability to intercept targets, making it difficult to complete the task of dealing with various types of tactical ballistic missiles and advanced precision guided weapons.

To meet the needs of all-round air defense operations, the "Doer" air defense missile will adopt a dual-mode guidance system of radar active seeking and infrared guidance, realizing the function of automatically attacking targets without the continuous target indication of multi-functional radar, and solving the problem of blind spots caused by intercepting high-precision weapon top attacks.

（3） Add missile warhead functionality

In order to effectively deal with drones, missiles have achieved technological breakthroughs in the warhead on the basis of the original fragmentation killing method, adding the means of "electronic" killing airborne radio electronic equipment, and using magnetic storm generators in the warhead.

Using a geomagnetic storm generator to directly convert the explosive energy of mixed charges into electromagnetic pulse energy, when the mass of the geomagnetic storm generator is 12-15 kilograms, the emitted microwave energy is sufficient to detonate within a radius of 100-150 meters or larger, causing functional damage to the electronic equipment onboard the drone. A missile can be used to destroy multiple drone targets, achieving "intelligent" asymmetric strikes on small and ultra small drones.

（4） Improve wireless electronic equipment

The urgent need at present is to engage in comprehensive confrontation with small unmanned aerial vehicles, which requires further improvement of the wireless electronic equipment for search, tracking, communication, and control of the "Doyle" system.

By improving the detection and guidance radar system to meet the complexity and diversity requirements of future air defense operations; By improving the information transmission and exchange system, enhance the overall coordination capability with the entire air defense system.

At present, the "Doer" system is equipped with digital remote information exchange equipment connected to the command post of the unified artillery unit. However, its efficiency is low in low-speed mode, and it can only achieve information exchange in one direction. Although it increases the channel of the tank, it cannot exchange information with the remote mode where the command post of the unified artillery unit is located.

For this purpose, the Penza Wireless Power Plant in Russia has developed a modern small-scale anti-interference data transmission device to solve this technical problem.

（5） Improve the adaptability of tank environment

Relatively speaking, the maneuverability of the 'Doyle' system is already very strong and has achieved the expected results. To further improve the adaptability of wheeled chassis and tracked armored vehicles to combat modules in complex combat environments, future experiments and designs aimed at enhancing maneuverability will continue to be conducted on tank chassis.

The technological upgrade of the "Doyle" air defense missile system has been ongoing for nearly thirty years, with continuous breakthroughs in technology and significant improvements in all tactical and technical performance of the system. In testing, exercises, and practical applications, the combat performance and application prospects have been repeatedly verified.

With the continuous development of modern air raid weapons and hypersonic weapons, a new round of modernization technology upgrade for the "Doyle" air defense missile system is urgently needed.

In the future, the possible development points of the new generation of "Doyle" air defense missile system include: perfect compatibility with the early warning command system; Develop the ability to strike hypersonic weapons and various unmanned aerial vehicles; Together with S-300B, "Buk", "Armor" and other air defense systems, it forms a field air defense interception network covering the entire airspace.

Source: Aerospace Defense