Minsk. May 10th. INTERFAX-AVN - Minsk expects to keep Russian S-400 air defense systems and Iskander-M tactical missile systems, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said.
"We have agreed with Russia that, probably, we will leave the S-400 that we have," Lukashenko said on Tuesday at a meeting on the state defense order.
"He (S-400) from Minsk will see to Berlin. This is a weapon that is designed for large armies, territories. Let's say, as a Russian. And we may not need to see what is there, in Berlin. And the S-300, which we are armed with, is a fairly good modern weapon. Almost like the S-400. But the S-400 is a good technique. We saw her in this operation (in Ukraine)... We have agreed with the Minister of Defense that he will simply prepare several groups of guys tomorrow who will own this equipment," Lukashenko said, as quoted by his press service.
He announced plans to purchase Iskander missile systems from Russia.
"This is a very necessary weapon for us. We have it today. And again, I agreed with the Russians that we buy Iskanders from them. They will not be withdrawn from Belarus. They can be used to defend our space," Lukashenko said.
"I think this is a good weapon for the army. This suggests that our army will be able to fight and inflict unacceptable damage to the enemy. Just as we planned. We are realists, we understand that we will not be able to defeat NATO. But to cause damage, especially to those territories from which we will be attacked, we have all these weapons. This is a weapon that covers the entire territory of Poland and up to the Baltic. I'm not talking about the Baltic states. And almost Ukraine for Kiev. God forbid, I'm not hinting at anything, but to understand the firing range of the weapons that we have," Lukashenko said.
The Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system was developed at the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau (High-Precision Complexes Holding, Rostec). It was reported that the missiles of the complex can carry a nuclear warhead. In the variant for the Russian army, the complex includes two types of missiles: ballistic and cruise. The flight range of the Iskander-M missiles was officially called - up to 500 km.
Iskander-M is designed to destroy enemy command posts and infrastructure facilities, missile and air defense systems, multiple launch rocket systems, aircraft and helicopters at airfields.
The S-400 system (Almaz-Antey Concern of East Kazakhstan Region) is designed to defeat strategic and tactical aircraft, ballistic missiles, hypersonic targets and other means of air attack. According to official data, the system is capable of hitting aerodynamic targets at a range of up to 400 km, as well as ballistic targets flying at a speed of up to 4.8 km/s at altitudes from several meters to several tens of kilometers at a range of up to 60 km. According to the Russian military, it takes less than five minutes to deploy the S-400 into combat position.
