Russia To Upgrade Anti-Missile Defense System Around Moscow

Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Oleg Ostapenko has announced that the anti-missile defense system covering Moscow and Russia's central industrial regions will be upgraded soon. He refused to elaborate on the new systems but said, "We have a range of new objects which we are obliged to defend, and we'll defend them. There are new developments in some fields, and I think they will be deployed in the near future”. "You will probably find out more about them in the near future," said Ostapenko added. Earlier in September, the former chief of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, Col. Gen. (Ret) Viktor Yesin revealed the government’s plans to upgrade the system. “The missiles and other elements, including detection and tracking components, are being upgraded,” Yesin said then. The A-135 system was first deployed in 1995 and uses the Don-2N battle management radar and two types of ABM missiles. Two launch sites with long-range 51T6 (NATO: SH-11 Gorgon) exo-atmospheric interceptor missiles were deactivated in 2007 as the missiles became obsolete. They will be equipped with new long-range missiles and reactivated following modernization, RIA Novosti reported in September. "There are no plans to build new launch sites as the mothballed ones will be reactivated,” Yesin said.