Sary Shagan

Sary Shagan (Сары-Шаган; ) is an anti-ballistic missile testing range located in Kazakhstan at coordinates 46.38333°N, 72.86667°W.

On 17 August 1956 the Soviet Council of Ministers authorized plans for an experimental facility for missile defense located at Sary Shagan, on the west bank of Lake Balkhash. The first missile launched from the facility was a V-1000 on 16 October 1958, but the facilities for full scale testing were not ready until 1961. Sary Shagan remains in use to this day, with the latest known launch at 16 October 2012. Sary Shagan was a closed city until 2005.

The length of the site is 480km.

The Sary Shagan range was the intended landing site for the sample return canister of the Russian Phobos Grunt mission.

Other notable military complexes on site
In the 1970s the Vympel OKB built the Terra-3 laser testing centre at Sary Shagan.

Radar site
The Sary Shagan site has hosted a number of radar prototypes such as the Don-2NP. Also there is Balkhash-9 radar station a few km away which started in the 1960s and still functions as part of the Russian missile warning network.

References in Fiction
The Sary Shagan site is one of the USSR ABM/SDI sites featured in the Tom Clancy novel The Cardinal of the Kremlin.

The site is mentioned in the manga 'Battle Angel Alita' in reference to a supposedly historical weapon, a 'scalar field' device called the 'Sarishagan tiger'.