New BAZ-6402 towed 5P85TM/TE2 TEL design common to S-400 and S-300PMU2 (© 2010, Yevgeniy Yerokhin, Missiles.ru).

Highly mobile SAM systems and supporting assets, such as radars, operated to a disciplined “hide, shoot and scoot” doctrine by well trained and proficient crews will present genuine challenges in SEAD and DEAD operations.

In a well designed “hide, shoot and scoot” scheme, missile batteries are dispersed and usually camouflaged, and follow a highly disciplined EMCON protocol. The battery engagement radar will only emit if a target enters its engagement envelope, and emissions will be constrained to the target alone, the intent being to minimise opportunities for detection by enemy ISR assets or SEAD/DEAD tasked aircraft. In this regime of operation, the engagement radar for the missile battery is cued by other assets to point at the target, missile TELs are put on standby ready to shoot by datalink commands, upon which the radar initiates search and track to prosecute the missile engagement. Time of flight for a modern hypersonic or fast supersonic SAM might be between tens of seconds or a small number of minutes, the latter for a very long range shot on a climb-cruise-dive or ballistic SAM trajectory.

Whether the missiles hit or miss the target, the battery has disclosed its location by emitting, so once the missile engagement has finished, the battery must “scoot” to a new hide to prepare and then wait for the next engagement.

The time to stow all components of the battery and initiate a move varies, but in modern Russian systems the cited stow time, during which hydraulic actuators fold and stow the antennas, lower the TEL launch gantries, and retract the outriggers, is typically 5 minutes or less. Modern acquisition radars, especially longer ranging types, may take longer due to more complex stow operations with folding antenna systems, and some retrofitted SAM TELs may also take longer.

Once the battery components are stowed, the convoy departs the location as quickly as possible, to relocate.

Transit speeds between locations depend on the local terrain and road environment, and the type of vehicles employed by the battery.

Where terrain is heavily forested, and unsealed dirt tracks or open flat ground is used to transit, transit speeds may be low, as vehicles are mostly limited in movements to specific paths and vehicle speed itself may not exceed 30 to 50 km/h due to road condition.

In developed areas where sealed roads with good load bearing capability are near to the battery hides, transit speeds will be limited by the vehicles employed, and any other road traffic which be occupying the carriageway. Under these conditions, wheeled vehicles may sustain their full dash speed, which may be up to 80 km/h (~50 MPH).

With every minute elapsed from the point in time where the battery has initiated its move, the worst case area to be searched to find and attack the battery increases with the square of vehicle speed and elapsed time:

The widely held belief that battery mobility is not a major impediment to SEAD/DEAD operations is not supportable by any material evidence.

Table 1 illustrates transit speed performance for a range of Russian vehicle types employed to carry air defence systems.

Vehicle Type	Max Road Speed [km/h]	Cruise Road Speed [km/h]	Systems	Notes
BAZ-6402	70.0	-	SA-21 SA-20B Gargoyle 64N6 Gamma SE
BAZ-6909	80.0	-	SA-21 SA-20B Gargoyle SA-22 Greyhound 55Zh6M Nebo M
BAZ-69096	50.0	-	SA-23 / S-300VMK
MAZ-543/7910	60.0	45.0	SA-10B Grumble SA-20A Gargoyle SA-20B Gargoyle
MAZ-537	55.0	-	40V6M/MD Masts	SA-10, 20, 21
KrAZ-260	80.0	-	SA-10B Grumble SA-20A Gargoyle SA-20B Gargoyle
Ural-375	75.0	-	9T33 Transporter P-15M Squat Eye P-15/19 Flat Face 1L119 Nebo SVU
MZKT-6922	80.0	-	SA-15 Gauntlet SA-17 Grizzly SA-8 Gecko (Osa-T) T38 Stilet
MZKT-8022	60.0	-	SA-3 Goa Upgrade
KAMAZ 6560	70.0	-	SA-22 Greyhound
MT-T	65.0	-	SA-12B Giant SA-12A Gladiator SA-23
GM5955	65.0	-	SA-15 Gauntlet SA-19 Grison
GM352M1E	65.0	-	SA-22 Greyhound
BAZ-5937	80.0	-	SA-8 Gecko

While many Cold War era systems were limited in sustained transit speeds to 45.0 km/h, more recent wheeled designs are mostly built for much faster sustained road speeds.

The systematic design of all Russian built IADS components for a “hide, shoot and scoot” regime of operations is resulting in pervasive changes to the character of future IADS, producing significant long term pressure to engage a SAM battery on initial contact. This in turn requires SEAD/DEAD aircraft with the survivability to loiter in contested airspace, or ISR assets with equal survivability. Platforms with lower survivability will suffer unsustainable loss rates in battle with high mobility modern IADS.

9S32 Grill Pan deployed on MT-T series tracked vehicle (NIEMI image).

S-400 Triumf / SA-21 battery 92N6 Grave Stone and 96L6 radars deployed on  high mobility MZKT-7930 vehicles, evolved from the MAZ-543 Uragan Scud TEL chassis. The LEMZ 96L6E is common to the late production S-300PMU2 Favorit / SA-20B Gargoyle exported to the PRC (© 2010, Yevgeniy Yerokhin, Missiles.ru).

Kupol 9K332 Tor M2E / SA-15 Gauntlet point defence and Counter-PGM system at MAKS 2007. This new variant is hosted on the new MZKT-6922 6 x 6 TLAR/TELAR chassis, common the new 9K317 Buk M2/M2E / SA-17 Grizzly (NIEMI image).

HQ-9 TEL using the Taian TAS-5380 chassis (via Chinese Internet).