MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. Russia is testing the 14P222 self-propelled launcher developed by the Design Bureau of Special Machine-Building (part of Almaz-Antey defense manufacturer) for the Nudol anti-missile and anti-satellite defense system, Design Bureau CEO Vladimir Dolbenkov said in an interview with the National Defense magazine on Thursday.

"A modern mobile system has been created for the Aerospace Force as part of the Nudol R&D work. The 14P222 self-propelled launcher has been developed and is undergoing trials. For the first time in the domestic machine-building industry, the task of creating an electric hydraulic drive with the installation of a transporter and launcher container with a high degree of vertical accuracy for air and missile defense systems has been solved," the chief executive said.

The enterprise’s specialists have also developed the launching automation equipment for the self-propelled launcher and the transporter for its operation and maintenance, he added.

The Nudol is an advanced anti-missile defense system developed by Almaz-Antey Group. According to the data of open sources, the long-range interception system is outfitted with new missile interceptors. As the US intelligence community believes, the system has anti-satellite capabilities.

Editor-in-Chief of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine Viktor Murakhovsky told TASS in May 2019 that the Nudol was a mobile anti-missile defense system designed to strike hypersonic targets, such as intercontinental ballistic missile warheads.

As the editor-in-chief said, Russia’s vast territory cannot be shielded from one position only and that is why the Nudol mobile system under development can move and deploy in positioning districts in the areas, from which a threat may come.

The daily Izvestia wrote in February 2018, citing the data it had received from Russia’s Defense Ministry, that the top brass would upgrade the Moscow anti-ballistic missile defense system before the end of 2018, arming it with 53T6M Nudol super-fast and super-maneuverable missile interceptors with their deployment in the Moscow Region.

As Russia’s Defense Ministry told the daily Izvestia, the 53T6M missiles that will be put on experimental combat duty are designated for anti-missile and anti-satellite defense of both Moscow and the Central Industrial District.