Kamchatka to get first S-400 air defence regiment in December - source

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. The Russian Defence Ministry will take delivery in December of a new three-battalion regiment of the S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems to be deployed on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, a high-ranking ministry source said on Wednesday. The source told TASS that the regiment will be for the first time equipped with three battalions of 24 S-400 Triumf (NATO Designation SA-21 Growler) anti-aircraft systems that can engage targets at a maximum range of up to 400 km at an altitude of 40,000-50,000 metres. Russia’s Almaz-Antey defence concern, the manufacturer of S-400 Triumf systems, previously supplied only two-battalion regiments to the Defence Ministry. Russia currently has a total of eight S-400 regiments deployed near Moscow, St. Petersburg, near the port city of Nakhodka in the far eastern Primorye Territory, in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and in the Southern Military District. On Tuesday, Almaz-Antey reported the early handover of the eighth S-400 regiment to the Defence Ministry, adding that one more regiment will be supplied by the end of 2014. The S-400 air defence systems, which are capable of launching up to 72 missiles and engaging up to 36 targets simultaneously, entered service in 2007 to replace the S-300 systems. Russia intends to deploy 28 S-400 regiments by 2020. Read more