MOSCOW – Russia has deployed a battalion of its advanced S-400 missiledefense systems to Serbia to be used in a joint military drill in theBalkan country, the first time Moscow uses the state-of-the-art air defenseinterceptors “on the territory of a foreign state”, the Russian defenseministry says.
“The Russian air defense units with S-400 surface-to-air missile systemsand Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile/gun launchers have been airlifted byRussian military transport planes to the territory of Serbia to take partin the second stage of the Slavic Shield-2019 joint Russian-Serbian airdefense exercise,” Tass news agency quoted the ministry as saying onThursday.
It added that both the S-400 battalion and the Pantsir battery, which havebeen deployed at Batajnica Air Base some 25 kilometers from Serbia’scapital Belgrade, would participate in military drills “on the territory ofa foreign state for the first time.”
The S-400, whose full name is the Triumph Mobile Multiple Anti-AircraftMissile System (AAMS), entered service with the Russian army in 2007 and isconsidered Russia’s most advanced long-range anti-aircraft missile system.
Capable of engaging targets at a distance of 400 kilometers and at analtitude of up to 30 kilometers, the missile system can destroy aircraft aswell as cruise and ballistic missiles. It can also be used againstland-based targets.
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Russia’s Pantsir-S missile system is a combined short to medium rangesurface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon system,representing the latest air defense shield by using phased array radars forboth target acquisition and tracking.
The first phase of the Slavic Shield-2019 was held at the Russian AerospaceForce’s combat training center in the southern Astrakhan Region last monthand Serbian troops present there had the opportunity to observe the S-400sin action.
The second stage is running in Serbia on October 23-29.
