MOSCOW, June 12./ITAR-TASS/. Russia and Brazil did not manage to finalize a contract on supplies of Pantsir-S1 (NATO’s reporting name: SA-22 Greyhound) surface-to-air-missiles before beginning of World Cup-2014, though both countries are interested in signing the agreement, head of the federal service on the military-technical cooperation Aleksander Fomin said on Thursday.

“Apparently, we are not managing in time by the beginning of the championship, but we continue the dialogue with our counterparts, the project is in its active phase,” he said. “We hope to finalize this project this year.”

He continued saying the Brazil side had confirmed its interest in buying Panstir-S1 systems.

“Surely, our counterparts need those complexes,” the official said.

Among the tasks, Brazil named for buying the complexes, were security measures at international sports and cultural events, including the World Cup, which begins on Thursday.

“Our counterparts had to observe certain procedures, lice tenders, reasons for choosing a counterpart, the samples and so on. All those procedures have taken time, and most of them are being finalized now. We have been contacting actively, but, unfortunately, the contract is not in place yet.”

Pantsir-S1 is a short to medium range ground based air defense system, wheeled, tracked or stationary with two to three operators. Its air defense consists of automatic anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air-missiles with radar or optical target-tracking and radio-command guidance. Its purpose is protection of civil and military point and area targets, for motorized or mechanized troops up to regimental size or as defensive asset of higher ranking air defense systems like S-300/S-400. It is produced by KBP of Tula, Russia.

The World Cup in Brazil will continue from June 12 through to July 13.