YEKATERINBURG, October 19. /TASS/. The teams of S-400 ‘Triumf’ anti-aircraft missile systems that arrived for the Urals air defense regiment of Russia’s Central Military District live-fired the new weapons for the first time after their rearmament, the District’s press office reported on Monday.
The Russian defense manufacturer Almaz-Antey earlier delivered the third regiment set of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems this year to the Defense Ministry ahead of schedule. The advanced air defense weapons arrived for the anti-aircraft missile regiment stationed in the Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals.
"The S-400 ‘Triumf’ teams detected a Kaban target that simulated a tactical missile, practiced its tracking and successfully struck it at an altitude of about 20 km. The live-fire is the final stage of accepting the latest systems for service in the Urals anti-aircraft missile regiment," the press office said in a statement.
Before the live-fire, the regiment’s teams underwent retraining at the training center of the Aerospace Force Military Academy’s training center of air defense missile troops in the Leningrad Region in Russia’s northwest.
"As the next stage, the personnel and the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems will redeploy to their permanent base in the Sverdlovsk Region. The military hardware will undergo maintenance, following which it will go on air defense combat duty in the Urals area of responsibility," Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment Commander Colonel Yuri Semyonov was quoted by the press office as saying.
Russia’s S-400 ‘Triumf’ (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) is the latest long-and medium-range surface-to-air missile system that went into service in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, and can also be used against ground installations. The S-400 can engage targets at a distance of up to 400 km and at an altitude of up to 30 km under intensive enemy fire and jamming.