Russia to deliver 5 S-300 missile battalions to Kazakhstan

Russia will deliver five S-300PS surface-to-air missile battalions to Kazakhstan for free, Tengrinews reports. Each battalion includes several different radars, a command center and six launch vehicles with a total of 24 missiles. The response time of the launch vehicles (the time between the vehicle stopping and the missile firing) is only 5 minutes. "Five S-300PS units will be transferred to Kazakhstan from the arsenal of the Russian Defense Ministry," Anatoly Antonov, Deputy Defense Minister of Russia, is quoted by RIA Novosti as saying after his talks with his Kazakhstan counterpart. Earlier the Russian Defense Minister assured Kazakhstan that Russia would supply a sufficient number of S-300s to ensure security of the Kazakhstan air space. So delivery to Kazakhstan in 2014 was long expected, but the exact number has not been unveiled until now. These missile systems are stationed on alert in Russia and now "experts of the two countries will have to cooperate to put them on alert" in Kazakhstan. According to Antonov, it will serve "to strengthen not only Kazakhstan, but also the air defense of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)". The S-300 is a series of highly capable, long-range surface-to-air missile complexes. The fully mobile units have the capacity to engage ballistic missiles as well as aircrafts. Each battery includes a long-range surveillance radar that can track objects located in the range of 300km, a command vehicle that identifies and assesses potential targets obtained by the surveillance radar and orders the engagement radar to launch missiles. After that the best placed of the battalion's six launch vehicles releases two surface-to-air missiles per target and the engagement radar guides the missiles towards the target. It can engaging up to six targets at once and guide up to 12 missiles simultaneously. The S-300 is regarded as one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems currently fielded.