MOSCOW. Aug 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The troops of the Special Task Command (the former Moscow air and air-defense district) have everything they need to fulfill air-defense tasks in the central region, Special Mission Troops Commander Yuri Solovyov told a news conference at the Interfax main office on Wednesday.
"The fighter aviation potential has been preserved. The modernization of the S-300 system under the Favorit program has increased the air-defense missile troops' capabilities. The radar- controlled space and the field controlled by ground control interception stations have remained the same," said Solovyov.
He said that over the past three years, the Special Task Command troops have acquired two new automated troops and armaments control systems. "Several new radar units allow us to spot targets flying at minimal altitudes and to deal with ballistic targets," the general said.
The Special Task Command troops control an air space of 1.3 million square kilometers, where nearly one third of Russia's population lives, and defend over 140 strategic installations. About 2,000 servicemen assume duty at fighter aviation, missile and radar units daily. Up to 3,000 targets are monitored in the troops' controlled zone per shift.
The command is armed with S-300 air defense missile systems of the latest varieties, MIG-29 Fulcrum, MIG-31 Foxhound and SU- 27 Flanker fighters, and SU-24 Fencer frontline bombers. Potential firing capabilities of the command's assets, given their reinforcement in wartime, are sufficient of hitting up to 500 targets at high and medium altitudes or 400 targets at low altitudes by one allowance of missiles and in one aviation mission.