MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Almaz-Antey Aerospace Defense Company is upgrading air defense systems to fire various missiles, Deputy CEO for scientific-technical development and Deputy Designer General Sergey Druzin told TASS.
"Modern complexes have to fire various types of missiles. If I have to destroy a target 15 kilometers away, it is not wise to engage a missile with a 300-km range. Therefore, one complex shall have several types of missiles. We are implementing it," he said.
Head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis Alexander Mikhailov told TASS long-range S-300V, S-300V4 and Antey-2500 can already fire various missiles.
"The guideline will develop in short and medium-range missiles. Kupol producer of Tor air defense complexes said it would make a compact and cheaper missile to down drones," he said.
Druzin said Almaz-Antey upgrades air defense launchers to better down drones right in deployment places in the zone of the Ukrainian military operation.
"We have acquired major experience during the operation. We considerably improved the hardware and algorithms and the capabilities of the complexes. We do it in greenfield without factory conditions. We upgrade ‘the mathematics’ in deployment places," he said adding specialists of the company successfully cope with the difficult task.
Russian air defense launchers have a bigger range than US Patriot in Ukraine, Druzin said.
"Patriot is characterized by two components: the control system and the missile itself. The missile has a flight range. Our complexes exceed the range of all foreign ones," he said.
The radar and jam-resistance characteristics of foreign launchers are comparable to Russian ones, he added.
Patriot destroys aerodynamic targets at a distance of 160 kilometers and ballistic missiles at 60 kilometers. Russian S-400 has 380 and 60 kilometers respectively. Patriot can down targets flying at a speed of 3,000 m/sec. The figure for the Russian complex is 4,800 m/sec.
German-made Taurus long-range cruise missiles are a difficult target, but Russian air defense systems will down them anyway, Druzin said.
"It is not an easy target. It has a small cross section or signature. However, all our air defense systems have the potential to detect it and destroy. They shall be detected and downed," he said.
Druzin described Taurus as "a good cruise missile, which has nothing extraordinary and horrible." "These targets do not pose problems for our launchers," he said.