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Russia’s last satellites for identifying ballistic missile launchers cease operation

The launch of the first satellite Tundra of Russia’s unified space system will take place no earlier than in June, until then, there will be no satellites in Russia's missile warning system

© ITAR-TASS/Sergei Kazak

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One GLONASS satellite withdrawn for maintenance

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. Two last satellites of the Oko program for identifying ballistic missile launchers ceased operating in January, the Kommersant daily wrote on Wednesday.

The launch of the first satellite Tundra of Russia’s unified space system will take place no earlier than in June, the daily said. Until then, there will be no satellites in the space echelon of Russia’s missile warning system.

"Oko-1 was part of Russia’s missile warning system. The system employed six satellites on geostationary and highly elliptical orbits. The last geostationary satellite got out of order in April last year. The two remaining satellites on highly elliptical orbits could operate only several hours a day. In the beginning of January, they also went out of order," Kommersant said.

The new generation early warning satellite Tundra was planned to be launched in 2013. However, the launch was postponed several times as the apparatus was not ready to be put into operation, sources in the aerospace industry told the daily.

In October 2014, Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said that despite the deterioration of the space echelon of Russia’s missile warning system, Russia "has almost no unprotected territories" thanks to radars. "Today we have a solid information space, we are protected well from all potentially dangerous directions," Borisov noted.

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