Brazil To Buy Russian Pantsir-S1 Missile Systems Next Year

Brazil will buy Pantsir-S1 close-range air defence system from Russia in 2016.

“Russia has been notified that an allotment from the Brazilian budget for the purchase of Pantsirs is planned for 2016,” a highly-ranked official in the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation was quoted as saying  by Sputnik International Tuesday.

Brazil was in discussion with Russia to buy Pantsir-S1 air defense systems in April, the head of Russian delegation had said at LAAD Defense and Security 2015 exhibition in Rio de Janeiro.

Pantsir S1 is designed to protect vital small-size and big military areas, industrial targets and land forces units and reinforced the air defense units responsible for the protection of troops and military installations against precision-guided air attack from low and extreme low altitudes.

The Pantsir-S1 is armed with two 2A38M 30mm automatic anti-aircraft guns developed from the two-barreled 30mm GSh-30 gun, coupled with twelve 57E6 surface-to-air missiles on launchers. 

The Pantsir-S1 can be used as military/industrial/administrative installations against aircraft, helicopters, precision munitions, cruise missiles and UAV's and to provide additional protection to air defence units from enemy air attacks employing precision munitions especially at the low-extremely low ranges.

Russia currently sells Pantsir-S1 to eight countries, including Brazil, Syria, United Arab Emirates and most recently, Iraq, which plans to use the system in the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group.