What is this “Fundament-M”, which was destroyed during the strike on the airfield in Dzhankoya

The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that there are already the first official data on enemy losses as a result of the attack on the night of April 17, 2024 on the airfield in the temporarily occupied Dzhankoi. It is noted that the Russians lost four launchers of the S-400 complex, three radar stations, as well as the air defense control center and the Fundament-M airspace surveillance equipment.

In the case of “Fundament-M”, we have perhaps the first mention of this sample of enemy equipment during the entire time of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. Therefore, let’s at least briefly tell about this machine, and why its destruction is so important.

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An image circulating on social networks as a result of an airstrike in the temporarily occupied Jankoi on April 17, 2024

We will talk about “Fundament-M” briefly not so much to save the time of our readers, but because there is really very little information about this sample of enemy equipment in the public domain. For example, it was possible to find only three pictures depicting this piece of equipment.

“Fundament-M” is an automated control system for air defense units of the Russian Army. The earliest publicly available mention of this ACS dates back to 2011, and even then it was stated that this “analogovnet” is capable of controlling the work of an entire anti-aircraft missile regiment, in particular, when repelling a massive attack using cruise and ballistic missiles.

The first presentation of the “Fundament” system took place during MAKS-2013, and the first reports of deliveries to the military date back to 2015. Then, as Russian resources stated, these systems were delivered to units located in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the Far East.

An early version of this system under the designation “Fundament-MAE” during a presentation at MAKS-2013, image from open sources

In turn, in 2021, there was also a notification about the delivery of 5 such vehicles to the air defense units of the Central Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. On the basis of which, we can make an assumption that “Fundament-M” is a rare system for the Russian army, and due to a quantitative deficit, this ASU was supplied primarily to the “advanced” military districts.

The Russians themselves publicly stated only one characteristic of “Fundament-M” – the ability to “couple” with all available types of radars and air defense systems in the Russian army. But judging by the fact of the loss during the attack on Dzhanka, “Fundament-M” turned out to be unable to cope with the main task – to ensure that the Russian occupiers repel a missile attack.

Previously, Defense Express talked about what makes the 29B6 “Container” radar so special, which was attacked by our UAVs for the second time.

In the photo in the center are “Fundament-M” cars, photo from open sources

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