Acording to the Russian Defense Ministry, at the end of January 2021, the S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) will take up combat duty in the Samara region. This was announced by the commander of the air defense division of the 14th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense, Major General Oleg Nikanorov, when summing up the results of 2020.
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S-400 Triumph battery (Picture source: Russian MoD)

“In November 2020, at the Kapustin Yar training ground in the Astrakhan region, the anti-aircraft missile regiment adopted the S-400 Triumph air defense system. In early December, the S-400 Triumph crews conducted initial combat firing, during which they discovered the Kaban target missile imitating an operational-tactical missile, worked out the escort, and at an altitude of more than 15 kilometers the target was successfully destroyed. The new regimental kit has already arrived in the Samara region and will take up combat duty at the end of January, ”said Major General O. Nikanorov. He added that in 2020, an anti-aircraft missile regiment took part in more than 20 tactical and tactical-special exercises.

The air defense division of the Central Military District with headquarters in Samara has the largest coverage of the air border among all air defense units of the Russian Armed Forces. Its divisions are deployed in more than 10 regions of the Volga region and the Urals. The division is armed with S-400 Triumph and S-300 air defense systems, Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile systems, Sky-M and Sky-U radar stations, Kasta-22, Terek "," Desna ".

The division is known for the fact that on May 1, 1960, its regiment opened a combat account of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Soviet Union's air defense, destroying a Lockheed U-2 spy plane flown by Captain Francis Powers in the Ural sky.