1489th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment
Unit Identity and Designation
1489th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment (military unit 28036) is a regiment-level formation of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS), Air and Missile Defense Forces. The unit is commonly referenced in open sources as being equipped with the S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system. The Guards title is an honorific signifying distinguished historical service.
Command Subordination
Open-source reporting places the regiment within the Western Military District under the 6th Air and Air Defense Army, subordinated to the 2nd Air Defense Division that provides air defense for the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast area. Russian Ministry of Defense public communications identify multiple S-400 regiments on combat duty in the Leningrad Oblast region; formal orders of battle and detailed command relationships for specific regiments are not consistently published.
Primary Equipment and Capabilities (S-400 Triumf)
The S-400 (SA-21 Growler) is a long-range, multi-channel SAM system capable of engaging aircraft, cruise missiles, and certain classes of ballistic targets. Typical missiles used include 48N6-series interceptors (up to approximately 250 km engagement range against aerodynamic targets) and 9M96-series missiles for medium and short ranges; the long-range 40N6 missile (reported engagement envelope up to roughly 380–400 km) entered Russian service in 2018 per official announcements. A standard S-400 battalion employs a 55K6E command post, 91N6E acquisition radar, 92N6E engagement radar, and 96L6-series all-altitude radar, with 8–12 transporter-erector-launchers (four missile tubes per TEL). Site security is typically augmented by short-range systems such as Pantsir-S1, though attachment at regiment level varies by unit and period.
Organizational Structure
Russian S-400 regiments generally field two to three firing battalions (diviziony), a regimental command element, and support subunits for communications, logistics, maintenance, and medical support. Precise manning levels, number of firing battalions, and any attached short-range air defense for the 1489th Guards Regiment (military unit 28036) are not publicly disclosed by the Russian Ministry of Defense; open-source publications provide aggregate, not authoritative, figures for similar units.
Garrison and Basing Overview
Publicly available reporting associates the 1489th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment (military unit 28036) with Leningrad Oblast in Northwestern Russia, within the broader Saint Petersburg air defense network. Official documents do not publish precise site coordinates or street addresses for active air defense units. S-400 firing positions in this region are typically located on prepared, secured sites with hardstand launch pads, integral power supply and communications, and colocated radar positions, and are connected to divisional and army-level air defense command-and-control networks.
Headquarters
Military unit number 28036 is the administrative identifier for the 1489th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment. An official, detailed headquarters address is not published in Russian Ministry of Defense open communications. Open-source references link the headquarters to Leningrad Oblast; releasing specific addresses or exact coordinates is not supported by authoritative public documentation.
Mission and Area of Responsibility
Within the 6th Air and Air Defense Army architecture, the regiment’s mission is airspace control and point and area air defense of critical infrastructure, military installations, and approaches to Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast region. The unit’s sensors and fire units are integrated with radio-technical troops for early warning and with higher-echelon automated control systems to create a layered air defense umbrella alongside other S-300/400 regiments in the region.
Operations and Training Activity
S-400 regiments in Leningrad Oblast, including the 1489th by open-source association, conduct regular combat duty rotations, readiness inspections, and live-fire training at the VKS training ranges in Astrakhan Oblast (notably the Ashuluk range, under the 185th Combat Training Center). They routinely participate in district and national-level exercises such as periodic Western Military District drills and the Zapad strategic-operational exercises (e.g., 2017, 2021), where air defense units practice countering massed cruise missile raids, UAVs, and ballistic target surrogates. Specific dates and taskings for military unit 28036 are infrequently specified in official summaries.
Infrastructure and Support Elements
A regiment operating S-400 typically maintains hardened or semi-fixed firing positions with space for multiple TELs, radar sites (91N6E, 92N6E, and 96L6-series), command posts, and communications nodes. Support infrastructure includes mobile power units, maintenance and transport vehicles (including reloaders), and protected storage. Integration with radio-technical units provides long-range detection via networked sensors (e.g., Nebo-M and Podlet-K1 families at higher echelons), while point defense assets such as Pantsir-S1 are commonly used to protect S-400 positions from low-altitude threats; their allocation is determined by higher command.
Modernization and Re-equipment Timeline
Russian official reporting indicated the deployment of S-400 systems to the Leningrad Oblast area in the mid-2010s, with continuing rotations and upgrades through the late 2010s and early 2020s. The 40N6 long-range missile was officially accepted for service in 2018, and automated command-and-control systems at division and regiment level (such as Baikal-1M or Polyana-D4M1 variants) have been reported in service across the VKS air defense network. Attribution of specific upgrades to military unit 28036 is not consistently detailed in public sources.
Operational Posture and Integration
The regiment forms part of a multi-layered air defense configuration around Saint Petersburg that includes multiple S-400 and legacy S-300P series regiments, supplemented by short-range systems and the radio-technical sensor network. Its activities are synchronized via the 2nd Air Defense Division’s command posts and the 6th Air and Air Defense Army’s air picture, enabling target distribution and deconfliction across regiments and adjacent sectors.
Open-Source Traceability
Military unit 28036 and the 1489th Guards designation appear in Russian-language open sources, including regional media mentions, defense reporting, and procurement-related documents that reference the unit number without exposing detailed dispositions. Satellite imagery-based assessments by independent researchers have identified S-400 positions in Leningrad Oblast generally; however, authoritative official publications rarely assign specific firing position clusters to particular regiments in real time.
Information Gaps and Classification Caveats
The Russian Ministry of Defense does not publicly release detailed manning, exact headquarters and site coordinates, internal tables of organization and equipment, or the current commander’s identity for military unit 28036. Any such details, if not present in official public releases, are either not publicly available or are classified. Consequently, figures for the number of firing battalions, TEL counts at specific sites, and exact deployment patterns for the 1489th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment cannot be confirmed from authoritative open sources.