MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax-AVN) - New S-400 air defense systems to be fielded with the Russian Air Force in 2005 will be employed jointly with the Space Forces for defending Russian crucial industrial centers, Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev, Air Force Deputy Commander-in-Chief for the CIS Unified Air Defense System, said on Wednesday.
"S-400s will defend such large cities as Moscow. St. Petersburg, as well as the Urals industrial region by destroying enemy missiles during their run-ins," Bizhev told reporters in Moscow.
He did not rule out the feasibility of employing these air defense systems for countering strategic ballistic missile MIRVs.
"S-400s will destroy air targets jointly with the A-135 system in service with the Space Forces," he said.
He also noted that S-400 combat crews would receive data on final stages of incoming missiles from space in the automatic mode, after which they would deploy their S-400 systems.
Bizhev also said that S-400 was capable of engaging air targets at an altitude range of 15 meters up to stratosphere at a range of over 250 km.
Bizhev also said that the Russian Air Force already operated two S-400 Triumf systems, being refined in military units, rather than plants. "These systems will be fielded in 2005," Bizhev said.
According to him, the air defense systems will be employed in borderline missile-dangerous areas for destroying cruise missiles, aircraft, and high-speed aircraft, flying at an altitude of several dozen meters up to stratosphere.