Russia unveils air defence system

Russia unveiled a new air defence system yesterday that its designers say will be used as the basis of a new generation of Russian missile-intercepting weapons.

Russian TV stations gave wide coverage to the deployment of the S-400 air defence system, a modernised version of a Soviet-designed surface-to-air missile unit.

"The real effectiveness of this complex is its ability to destroy ballistic targets, ballistic missiles, aerodynamic targets," Vadim Volkovitsky, deputy air force commander in charge of anti-aircraft defence, told NTV television.

"So not only the functions of air defence but also anti-missile defence," he said.

Russia has been bickering with the US over Washington's plans to deploy elements of an anti-missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The US says the shield is intended to defend against missiles from "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea and that it could not defeat Russia's giant nuclear arsenal.

But President Vladimir Putin says the shield would hurt Russia's interests and Russian generals have said Moscow will develop its own anti-missile defence shield in retaliation.

The Vremya Novostei newspaper reported that the S-400 would be used as a basis for a Russian anti-missile defence system. The designers of the S-400 Triumf said they were already working on a mobile anti-missile defence system.