S-400 missile defense systems will be put on combat duty around Moscow July 1, the commander of the Russian Air Force said Monday. Posted on 05/25/2007 11:16:50 AM PDT by M. Espinola
S-400 missile defense systems will be put on combat duty around Moscow July 1, the commander of the Russian Air Force said Monday.
The S-400 Triumf (NATO codename SA-21 Growler) is a new air defense missile system developed by the Almaz Central Design Bureau as an upgrade of the S-300 family.
"On July 1, one battalion of S-400 missile defense systems will be put on combat duty to defend the airspace of Moscow and Central Russia," Colonel-General Alexander Zelin said.
Zelin said the battalion is at an Air Force range, and after range practice, the battalion, based in the Moscow Region town of Elektrostal, east of the capital, will go on active duty.
It has been designed to intercept and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles), or twice the range of the MIM-104 Patriot, and 2.5 times that of the S-300PMU-2.
In April, Colonel-General Yury Solovyov, commander of the Air Defense Forces Special Command (former Moscow Military District Air Defense Command), said the system could also be used for limited purposes in missile and space defense, but that it is not intended to destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles.
However, he said the system is highly capable of destroying stealth aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with an effective range of up to 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) and a speed of up to 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) per second.
The Russian Air Defense Forces, which are part of the Air Force, currently deploy more than 30 regiments equipped with S-300 missile complexes, which will be gradually replaced with S-400 systems.
So, they can have a missle defense system but the US can’t deploy one because that would be an act of aggression. Asshats.
You beat me to it. Putin is a lousy Commie. Once a Commie, always a Commie.
IIRC the original ABM treaty allowed each side to select 1 area to defend with anti-missile technology. They chose Moscow and we chose some missile site out in the boonies.
And they cheated.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Ballistic_Missile_Treaty
Each country was allowed two sites at which it could base a defensive system, one for the capital and one for ICBM silos (Art. III). The treaty was signed in Moscow on May 26, 1972 and ratified by the US Senate on August 3, 1972.
The 1974 Protocol reduced the number of sites to one per party, largely because neither country had developed a second site. The sites were Moscow for the USSR and Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, since its Safeguard facility was already under construction, for the US.
Howso? Not that I doubt they would cheat, they were Soviet Asshats, afterall. But I am not familiar with how they cheated on the ABM treaty.
How stupid we were!!
I do not believe they will ever truly be our allies.
That's Putin's Neo-Soviet order.
The quicker the installation of a new missile shield defense system is in place, protecting the bulk of Eastern European states, the better.
The Soviets declared they’d never strike first, yet their defensive missiles, like these, are positioned to save a city, Moscow.
You’d think they would put the defensive shield around their ICBM complexes to ward off a first strike on their offensive capapbility. But what’s the point of defending empty silos if you intend to strike first? You’d defend your major cities, targets of retaliation.
The US ABM system guards our first strike capability, as it should if we didn’t plan on being the first to launch.
Putin’s Russia looks a lot like the USSR.
Some great youtube videos of these babies in action.
See #10.
In retrospect allowing the Russians to gain our top secret data, would be the same as allowing Iran's Islamic thugs to throughly inspect our national defense systems. Then again with all the sleeper cells lurking about, that task may have already been completed.
The White House and every other Western leader better wake up quickly to the threat(s) from Moscow and those terrorist exporting rouge states which the Kremlin continues supplying all sorts of advanced weapons systems - to make war against US.
Here are a few more images of Putin's new toys.
Is Moscow planning a first strike?
This would be a good article to start with on that subject (how Russia violated the ABM treaty).
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1996_h/h960927l.htm
I’ve never seen a Russian Growler; couple of German one’s when I was over there, but not a Russian.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.