Belarus to receive fourth S-300PS surface-to-air missile system from Russia TASS 30605161

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Defence & Security News - Belarus
 
Belarus to receive fourth S-300PS surface-to-air missile system from Russia
The Belarusian Air and Air Defense Force has received the fourth S-300PS surface-to-air missile (SAM) system battalion from Russia free of charge, the service’s commander, Maj. Gen. Oleg Dvigalev, told journalists. "In all, four SAM battalions have been supplied free of charge by the Russian Federation to Belarus, with the materiel of three of them overhauled in Russia and one in Belarus," the BelTA news agency quotes Dvigalev as saying.
     
Belarus-to-receive-fourth-S-300PS-surface-to-air-missile-system-from-Russia-640-001S-300PS surface-to-air missie (SAM)
     

The service’s commander has attended the induction of an S-300PS battalion for service by the 377th Guards Air Defense Missile Regiment stationed in the Polotsky District of the Vitebsk Region in the north of Belarus.

"The battalion has competed the preparations, and we are planning a firing exercise for it at the Ashuluk Missile Range in August. We expect good results [from the exercise]," Dvigalev said, adding that the battalion operating upgraded S-300PS systems would assume the air defense alert duty on May 6. The commander said two of the four Russia-supplied S-300 battalions would be on alert duty in the Polotsky District and the Grodno and Brest regions will get a battalion each. "Our air defense is sophisticated enough and has been refined continuously. We operate as part of the Belarusian-Russian Combined Regional Air Defense System," Dvigalev noted.

Lt. Gen. Pavel Kurachenko, chief of staff/first deputy commander-in-chief, Russian Aerospace Force, said on April 6 of this year, Russia and Belarus completed the activation of a combined air defense system of the East European Collective Security Region. "The agreement has been implemented, and from now on, the efforts will be focused on combined air defense alert duty and combined combat and staff training," he said.

Oleg Dvigalev has been appointed commander of the Belarusian-Russian Combined Regional Air Defense System.
     
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