Russia to completely re-arm anti-aircraft defense by 2020

Russia will completely re-arm its air defense forces by 2020 and the process will start as soon as next year, a military official has said.

Spokesman for the Russian Air Force, Colonel Vladimir Drik, told the ITAR-TASS news agency on Wednesday that apart from S-400 and Pantsir-S, the air- and space-defense troops would receive the newest Russian anti-missile system known under temporary name s-500. “Starting from 2011 we plan to supply the anti-aircraft missile forces with newest weapons and military hardware in mass quantities and by 2020 we plan to raise the share of such weapons to 100 per cent of the total,” Colonel Drik said. While describing the S-500 missile system, the military official said that the weapon will be able to take down high-speed targets, including those moving in the stratosphere and on low space orbits. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dedicated part of his annual address to the Federal Assembly to the reform and re-armament of the Russian military forces. In particular, the president said that the military should pay special attention to the strengthening of the national air- and missile-defense. He said that the anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems should be united into one complex that should be able to control space. He also said that the unified complex would be subject to the strategic command.