Moscow. November 11. INTERFAX - The export of the latest Russian S-500 Prometheus air defense systems is possible only after they are equipped with the necessary amount of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, said Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, Deputy Director General for Foreign Economic Activity of the Almaz - Antey concern of East Kazakhstan Region.
"At this stage, the main task is to provide our own Armed Forces. We will fulfill it, there will be a development of interest in the S-500 from foreign partners - and it will certainly not disappear - then we will talk about export," Dzirkaln said in an interview with Interfax.
According to him, "over time, there will probably be export deliveries of the S-500, but it's too early to talk about it yet."
"The main purpose of the concern is to ensure the security of the air borders of our state. And, of course, the main thing here is the fulfillment of the state defense order within the framework of the tasks that we have been assigned. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that additional tasks may arise in the course of fulfilling the requirements of the state customer," the agency interlocutor noted.
It was reported that India and China may become the first buyers of Prometheus
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said in mid-September that India could potentially become the first foreign buyer of the S-500.
At the same time, Borisov said that deliveries of the S-500 Prometheus to the Russian military had begun, but not yet in full nomenclature. According to him, the state tests of the system have recently been completed.
China was also named among the likely buyers of the S-500.
The S-500 is a new generation of air defense systems that, as officially reported, will be able to destroy satellites and hypersonic weapons in near space.
In May 2018, the American TV channel CNBC, citing sources who received data from US intelligence, reported that Russia had tested the S-500. According to the TV channel, the S-500 system successfully hit the target at a record range of over 480 km. According to American experts, this exceeded the range of any known previous tests by more than 80 km, a source told CNBC at the time.
It was reported that the S-500 was developed by Almaz-Antey Concern of East Kazakhstan Region as a new generation of air defense systems, in which it is supposed to apply the principle of separate solutions to the destruction of ballistic and aerodynamic targets. According to some reports, the maximum range of S-500 missiles is about 600 km.
