DUBAI, November 15. /TASS/. Russia’s armed forces will receive the first delivery of the S-550 strategic missile defense system before 2025, a source close to the Russian Defense Ministry told TASS on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow.

"The hardware for the S-550 has already been built,’’ he said. ‘’The first S-550 will be delivered to the Russian Aerospace Forces before 2025. Its delivery is part of the national armament program that runs to 2027.’’

The S-550 is first planned to be delivered in a brigade configuration, using a mobile launcher with a hypersonic missile, the source said. No sea-borne option is envisioned.

TASS has no official confirmation of this information.

The source was commenting on statements by the nation’s defense chief, Sergei Shoigu, who said at a Defense Ministry meeting on November 9 that President Vladimir Putin has pushed for the deliveries of the S-350, S-500 and S-550 air defense systems to the armed forces as he met military top brass and defense industry chiefs earlier this month.

The S-550 close-range missile interception system had been under development in the Soviet Union in 1981-1988 by a company now known as NPO Almaz. The project, along with some others, was terminated as part of Soviet-US defense agreements of that period. Some of the system’s equipment was dismantled after 1992. The project’s groundwork was destroyed after the collapse of the Soviet Union.