15 August 2011
Russian Could Deploy S-500 System For NATO Missile Defense, Expert Says
Global Security Newswire

A next-generation Russian antimissile system could be included in a NATO plan to construct a European missile shield, a prominent air defense developer told RIA Novosti on Monday (see GSN, Aug. 9).

Russia is in talks with the military alliance on potential avenues for antimissile collaboration. The two sides have yet to come to an agreement, largely due to Moscow's concerns the NATO missile shield would be aimed at undermining the Russian nuclear deterrent.

The United States has initiated the phased deployment of increasingly advanced sea- and land-based missile interceptors around the European continent. That effort, planned through 2020, would be folded into a wider NATO effort to integrate and enhance individual member states' antimissile capabilities.

The Kremlin has decried recent moves by the Obama administration to begin implementing its "phased adaptive approach" before negotiations with Russia have concluded (see GSN, June 22).

"The weakness of our position is because we are not offering our systems," one-time Almaz-Antei aerospace defense firm chief designer Igor Ashurbeili said. "We could offer the S-500."

If Russia does not do this, Washington "will request only our territory for the deployment of their interceptors as our contribution (to the shield)," he said.

The experimental S-500 system is designed to fire on as many as 10 targets at one time and to eliminate missile or aircraft threats at a distance of up to 370 miles (RIA Novosti I, Aug. 15).

The S-500 is to be fielded around the Russian capital no earlier than 2016, Ashurbeili told RIA Novosti.

"This deadline is set in a contract with the Defense Ministry," he said. "The project is currently at the engineering design stage."

Unlike the existing S-300 and S-400 air-defense systems, the S-500 would be too large and heavy to move on its own. Instead it would requiring towing.

"But it should be mobile in order to protect not only Moscow, but also any threatened region (in Russia)," Ashurbeili said.

He said the existing antimissile system surrounding Moscow was constructed nearly four decades ago and is now mostly outdated (RIA Novosti II, Aug. 15).

The former Almaz-Antei design head said future Russian antimissile systems are to be installed on aircraft, according to RIA Novosti.

"The following firepower missile that will replace the S-500 won't be land-based but air-based," he said.

The envisioned antimissile flying platform "will be an aircraft that will fly, control the field and not only track targets, but strike them," Ashurbeili said (RIA Novosti III, Aug. 15).

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced it has sought an enforceable pledge from NATO and Washington that the planned missile shield would not be aimed against Russia, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

Russian Deputy Minister Sergei Ryabkov discussed Moscow's request in a Friday meeting in St. Petersburg with U.S. Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher. Efforts to stem the spread of weapons of mass destruction were discussed as well, according to the ministry (Ilya Khrennikov, Bloomberg, Aug. 13).