MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Russia’s future airborne warning and control system A-100 will be able to identify new classes of targets, including new generation tactical aircraft, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"This system will be capable of promptly expanding the radar-monitored space in the designated area. The emergence of a new class of targets, including tactical aircraft, makes its development a vital need," Shoigu said while holding a distance conference on Tuesday.

"There are plans for creating two planes - an airborne laboratory and an experimental model of an airborne radar surveillance and targeting system," Shoigu said.

A-100 is a next generation of airborne warning and control system used to detect and track air targets and surface ships and notify the command posts of automated control systems of the radar and surface situation. Also, they can target fighter and attack jets at surface, air and naval targets or serve as an airborne command center.

A-100 is to be created on the basis of the previous generation system A-50 (military transport jet Ilyushin-76). In the long term A-100 equipment will be installed on the upgraded Ilyushin-76MD-90A (prototype of the serial system Premier)

Earlier, the manufacturer (radio-electronic concern Vega) said that on April 21 the radiotechnical complex of a future radar surveillance and targeting plane A-100 Premier was for the first time tested in flight on board a flying laboratory.