MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu inspected the fulfillment of the defense procurement plan for the production of missile systems at the Kolomna-based Machine-Building Design Bureau in the Moscow Region, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.
"Defense Minister of the Russian Federation Army General Sergey Shoigu inspected the fulfillment of the state defense plan for the production of man-portable and tactical missile systems of the Machine-Building Design Bureau Research and Production Corporation in the Moscow Region during his working trip to the troops of the Western Military District," the ministry said in a statement.
The defense minister viewed the Khrizantema-S anti-tank missile system with upgraded Khrizantema-M missiles, the combat vehicle of the Gibka-S man-portable surface-to-air missile system and the Dzhigit support launcher system with missiles of the Verba man-portable air defense system, it said.
In addition Shoigu was shown the Arena-M reactive armor suite.
"This active protection system designed to protect against enemy anti-tank weapons has been submitted for qualification tests. Simultaneously, we are carrying out work to improve the system to protect against loitering drones," Machine-Building Design Bureau Chief Designer Valery Kashin reported to the defense minister. Shoigu handed down an instruction to speed up this work.
"Company General Director Sergey Pitikov reported to the defense minister that ‘large-scale work is underway to expand the enterprise’s production capacities and the output of items rolled out by its factories in various areas has grown several-fold,’" the ministry added.
As the Russian defense minister pointed out during the working meeting, the use of missile systems in the special military operation in Ukraine confirmed their stated characteristics while high-precision systems rolled out by the enterprise help wipe out enemy targets at large distances with high accuracy.
Shoigu instructed the Machine-Building Design Bureau to upgrade the Iskander tactical missile system and the Kinzhal hypersonic weapon taking into account their combat use in the special military operation in Ukraine, the ministry reported.
"The defense minister assigned the enterprise’s management with promptly making adjustments and improvements to its products taking into account the experience of their employment in the special military operation," the ministry said in a statement.
The instruction applies to man-portable air defense systems, Iskander tactical and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and "to all that is needed to fight unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said.
The Kolomna-based Machine-Building Design Bureau (part of High Precision Systems Holding Company within the state tech corporation Rostec) produces a broad range of missile armament, including the Iskander-M tactical missile system, the Khrizantema-S anti-tank missile system, Igla and Verba man-portable air defense systems and the Izdeliye 305 light multi-purpose missile.