Pantsir-S1 air defense system will be tested deployed in next few months to Arctic region 2401141

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Defence & Security News - Russia
 
 
Friday, January 24, 2014 11:08 AM
 
Pantsir-S1 air defense system will be tested and deployed in the next few months to the Arctic region.
During the visit January 20, 2014, of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to the factory of the Russian Defense Company KBP Instrument Design Bureau of Tula, a new variant of the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile-gun system was presented with camouflage adapted to be used to the Arctic region.
     

The Russian-made Pantsir-S1 short-tange air defense system with winter camouflage at Tula factory, January 20, 2014.
     

According to the KBP's first deputy managing director, Nikolai Khokhlov, the Pantsir-S1 will be tested in the Arctic region. If the tests are successful, the Pantsir-S1 could be rapidly deployed in this part of the world.

The Pantsir-S1 (SA-22 Greyhound NATO code name) is an air defense missile-gun system designed to protect vital small-size and big military areas, industrial targets and land forces units and reinforced the air defense units responsible for the protection of troops and military installations against precision-guided air attack from low and extreme low altitudes.

The Pantsir-S1 is armed with two 2A38M 30mm automatic anti-aircraft guns developed from the two-barreled 30mm GSh-30 gun, coupled with twelve 57E6 surface-to-air missiles on launchers.

In December 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his military leadership they should build up their forces in the Arctic as a priority.

The Russian military has already started the deployment of aerospace defense units in the Arctic and construction of an early missile warning radar in the country’s extreme north, according to the commander of the Aerospace Defense Forces, Maj. Gen. Alexander Golovko.

The Defense Ministry has also announced plans to reopen airfields and ports on the New Siberian Islands and the Franz Josef Land archipelago, as well as at least seven airfields on the continental part of the Arctic Circle that were mothballed in 1993.

Arctic territories, believed to hold vast untapped oil and gas reserves, have increasingly been at the center of disputes between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark as rising temperatures lead to a reduction in sea ice.

Russia has made claims on several Arctic shelf areas and is planning to defend its bid at the United Nations.