MOZHAISK, Moscow region. July 22 (Interfax) - The next regiment equipped with S-400 Triumf new air defense missile systems is expected to enter combat duty near the town of Zvenigorod in the Moscow region before the end of 2011, Lieut. Gen. Valery Ivanov, commander of Russia's aerospace defense system, said.
"The third regiment equipped with S-400 systems will be put on combat duty this year. It will most likely happen as the end of the year draws nearer," he told journalists in Mozhaisk outside Moscow on Friday.
Asked to disclose the overall number of regiments that would be armed with the Almaz-Antei company's S-400 systems, Ivanov said that "their number will be sufficient to reliably protect the airspace."
The first regiment equipped with these systems entered combat duty in the town of Elektrostal in the Moscow region in 2007, he said.
"The second S-400 regiment will be put on combat duty outside Dmitrov on July 31, 2011," he said.