MOSCOW, December 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's anti-missile defense system covering Moscow and Russia's central industrial regions will be augmented by unspecified new systems in the near future, Deputy Defense Minister Oleg Ostapenko said on Tuesday.
"We have a range of new objects which we are obliged to defend, and we'll defend them. There are new developments in some fields, and I think they will be deployed in the near future," said Ostapenko, when asked when a new missile system would be fielded to replace the capital's ageing A-135 system.
"You will probably find out more about them in the near future," said Ostapenko, a former aerospace force commander before taking up his new appointment recently.
Russia's plans to update the system were announced by the former chief of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, Col. Gen. (Ret) Viktor Yesin in September.
“The missiles and other elements, including detection and tracking components, are being upgraded,” Yesin said then.
The A-135 system, development of which started in 1971, was first deployed in 1995. It uses the Don-2N battle management radar and two types of ABM missiles.
Two launch sites with long-range 51T6 (NATO: SH-11 Gorgon) exo-atmospheric interceptor missiles were deactivated in 2007 as the missiles became obsolete. They will be equipped with new long-range missiles and reactivated following modernization, RIA Novosti reported in September.
“There are no plans to build new launch sites as the mothballed ones will be reactivated,” Yesin said.
The short-range 53T6 (SH-08 Gazelle) endoatmospheric interceptor missiles are deployed at five launch sites with 12 or 16 missiles each. These are usually tested annually at Russia's Sary Shagan test site.
Russia's Aerospace Defense Force successfully tested a short-range anti-missile defense system in August, the Defense Ministry told RIA Novosti, but did not disclose the type of missile tested.
A previous test of a 53T6 missile was carried out in December 2011.
The A-135 system is compliant with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty from which the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2002.
RIA Novosti
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