MOSCOW. Jan 16 (Interfax-AVN) - Lieutenant General Mikhail Kizilov, head of the airspace use and air traffic control department in the Russian Defense Ministry, said on Thursday it was necessary to use the potential of the country's air traffic control system in the interests of the military.
"It is necessary to use the information potential of the 121 radar stations in service with the Russian air traffic control system in the interests of the Defense Ministry as fully as possible," Kizilov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
This must be done because "70 percent of Russia's territory are left without radar coverage after total reduction of the radio-technical troops," he said.
"We have already taken a series of measures to install additional equipment in the 121 stations of the air traffic control system in accordance with the Defense Ministry's requirements," Kizilov noted.
Systems with "friend-foe" capability ensuring identification of objects, secondary locators, etc. will be installed in the stations.
"This will allow us to use obtained data not only for controlling air traffic, but also in the interests of command posts of Air Force units and large units. These dual-purpose facilities will make creation of the necessary radar field cheaper," Kizilov said.
Moreover, this approach will make it easier to create proper radar assets whose development was not effected rationally.
"Until recently, we had about 15 research and development projects in this field, but none of them resulted in the creation of a unified dual-purpose radar that could be used for both air traffic control system and Defense Ministry," the general said.
Air Force Chief-of-Staff Colonel General Boris Cheltsov did not agree with Kizilov's statement that the radio-technical troops do not control about 70 percent of the country's territory.
"Seventy percent is a bit too much. Mostly we have no control over northwestern, eastern and western Siberia. In fact, there is no urgent need to maintain troops there for airspace control. We solve this problem by other ways," Cheltsov told Interfax-AVN.