FILE PHOTO: Russian S-500 surface-to-air missile system launches a missile during a test combat firing. © Sputnik / Russias Defense Ministry
The unparalleled S-550 missile-defense system is apparently in operation.
Russias new S-550 air defense system, said to be capable of hitting high-altitude spacecraft and missiles, including hypersonic types, has passed trials and is already in service, TASS has reported.
The Moscow news agency quoted a source, which it said is close to the Defense Ministry, who described the S-550 as "an absolutely new mobile strategic missile defense system, which is unparalleled anywhere in the world and capable of striking spacecraft, warheads of intercontinental ballistic missiles and hypersonic targets."
"The S-550 air defense system has successfully completed state trials. Its first brigade has already been placed on combat duty," they continued.
The arrival of this new hardware ensures that Russia possesses a multilayered air- and missile-defense architecture, according to the TASS source.
The country now boasts Pantsir anti-aircraft and cannon systems that cover low altitudes; the long-range air-defense systems S-350, S-400 and S-500; as well as the S-550, preventing threats from space.
There has so far been no official confirmation of the report.
The S-550 was developed in secrecy, with the public only becoming aware of its existence in early November. At that time, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu described the state-of-the-art air-defense system as being among the Russian militarys weapons of great importance during a panel chaired by President Vladimir Putin.
Sergey Chemizov, the head of the Rostec military-industrial conglomerate, later said that the S-550 will have a larger target-detection area and a longer missile range compared to its predecessors.
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