Pivan-1
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| Pivan-1 | |
|---|---|
Пивань-1 | |
| Part of Main Centre for Missile Attack Warning | |
 Satellite imagery of Pivan-1 satellite ground station | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Satellite ground station |
| Open to the public | no |
| Condition | operational[1] |
| Location | |
  Pivan-1 | |
| Coordinates | 50°20′57″N 137°11′22″E / 50.349167°N 137.189444°E |
| Height | 45m[1] |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1981 |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | 1127th Independent Radio Technical Unit[2] |
Pivan-1 (Russian: Пивань-1) is a military townlet near Komsomolsk-na-Amur in Khabarovsk Krai in the Russian Far East which is the location of the eastern control centre for Russia's Oko satellites.[3] These give early warning of ballistic missile launches, mainly from the continental United States. The site is part of the Main Centre for Missile Attack Warning and information from here is processed at the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces centre in Solnechnogorsk[3][4] and could be used, together with early warning radar such as the Voronezh, for launch on warning[5] or the A-135 anti-ballistic missile system. A similar facility is located at Serpukhov-15 near Moscow.
The name Pivan-1 is a code name following the practice established to name closed cities and military facilities. It is named after the nearest settlement, Pivan.
Oko consists of two types of early warning satellites - US-K and US-KMO. The older US-K satellites are in highly elliptical molniya orbits which give them coverage of the United States at certain times during the day. For full coverage of the US missile grounds four US-K satellites need to be operational and the system can have up to nine of them in orbit at once. [6]: 44 The US-KMO satellites are geosynchronous satellites providing continuous coverage. In total, 101 satellites have been launched.[7][8][9]
The Oko system was placed on combat duty in 1982.[6] The last US-KMO satellite (Kosmos 2479) was launched on 30 March 2012 [10] and the last US-K satellite (Kosmos 2469) on 30 September 2010.[11] They are being replaced by a new system called EKS.[12]: 7