"Air Defence Day has been marked since 1975. Its institution is connected with the fact that it was in April that key government decisions were taken to organise the country's anti-aircraft defences, which formed the basis of this state's air defence system, the organizational structure of air defence troops, their rise and further development," it was said at the headquarters of the anti-aircraft forces.
On the day before Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force of Russia Vladimir Mikhailov made a present to air defence troops: he announced that by 2006 several anti-aircraft missile regiments will be fitted out with new equipment. "We are working on new systems of anti-aircraft defence. The idea is not only to modernise the S-300 system," Mikhailov told journalists.
According to him, "in the pipeline" are new radar stations. "Some of them are already being tested in the troops," the commander added.
Mikhailov said that new military equipment has already begun to be delivered to army fighter aviation.
Moreover, according to him, the main thing now is that necessary capacities at enterprises of the defence-industry complex have been prepared to manufacture new equipment.
