RUSSIAN AIR FORCE CHIEF COMMENTS ON SWITCHOVER TO S-400 SAM SYSTEM
Interfax
March 4 2008
Russia
Yekaterinburg, 4 March: The Russian Army plans to switch to the
latest S-400 Triumf air defence missile system in thevery near future,
Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Col-Gen Aleksandr Zelin has said.
"I think we will be all switching to the new air defence missile
system S-400 in the very near future. Russiahas already put it into
service; one of the regiments is being rearmed with the system",
Zelin said at a newsconference in Yekaterinburg today.
He noted that other CIS countries also expressed interest in
the system. "In terms of the organization ofinteraction and the
organization of automated control systems of air defence, the Republic
of Belarus has the mostadvanced position. Everything new and advanced
is being put to use to ensure the protection of air borders of CIS
membercountries", Zelin said.
A representative of Belarus said at the new conference that Belarus
was working on the issue of buying S-400 systems."This is a matter
of years", [the representative said].
Aleksandr Zelin, commenting on military and technical cooperation
among CIS countries, said that they were interestedin equipment
repairs in the Russian Federation and other CIS countries with
appropriate potential.
Zelin chaired a meeting of the Air Defence Coordination Committee
under CIS Council of Defence Ministers held inYekaterinburg today. It
was attended by air force and air defence commanders from Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine
as well as representatives of the commander of the Baltic Fleet,
CIS and CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] bodies and
the defence industry.