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Middle East countries eye Russia’s latest shipborne air defense missile/gun system

The Pantsyr-ME is capable of striking air targets flying at a speed of up to 1,000 m/s

Pantsir-ME naval air defense missile system Peter Kovalev/TASS

Pantsir-ME naval air defense missile system

© Peter Kovalev/TASS

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. Middle East countries have displayed interest in Russia’s latest Pantsyr-ME shipborne air defense missile/gun system, Director for International Cooperation and Regional Policy at the state hi-tech corporation Rostec Viktor Kladov told TASS on Monday.

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"We see great interest in this weapon from Middle East countries and not only from them. We are confident that the Pantsyr-ME as the Pantsyr-S1 version adapted for sea holds very big market prospects but today it is early to speak about any specific agreements as the system was demonstrated just several days ago," the Rostec official said.

The Pantsyr-ME was for the first time demonstrated abroad at the IDEX-2019 international defense show in Abu Dhabi. The High Precision Systems Company (part of Rostec) earlier told TASS that the Pantsyr-ME could be mounted on all types of warships: from a missile boat displacing 500 tonnes of water to an aircraft carrier.

The Pantsyr-ME is capable of striking air targets flying at a speed of up to 1,000 m/s. The shipborne version can hit most modern combat aircraft at a slant range of up to 20km by its missiles and at a distance of up to 4 km by its artillery guns.

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