Russia’s Newest S-500 Missile System Exports to Start in Next Few Years - Arms Exporter

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - The export of the latest Russian anti-aircraft missile defence system, the S-500, will begin in the next few years, Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheev told Sputnik.

"The deliveries of the S-500 Prometheus anti-aircraft missile system to the external market is expected in the next few years. At present, the permits for it have not been issued", Mikheev said during the closure of the 2021 Dubai Airshow.

According to Mikheev, the first deliveries of the S-500 to the Russian military are planned before the end of the year.

The cutting-edge S-500 air defence system is capable of intercepting an array of aerial threats ranging from unmanned vehicles (UAV) to hypersonic and ballistic missiles at ranges up to 600 kilometres. A single system can track up to 10 hypersonic targets and detect hostile targets even in lower layers of space at altitudes up to 2,000 kilometres. S-500's main focus though is fighting off intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

Right now, Russia's main export in the sphere of air defences is the Pantsir-S1 (NATO reporting name SA-22 Greyhound) and S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler). The latter is even sought after by NATO states: Turkey inked contracts for several S-400 systems in 2017, despite pressure from the US. India has also considered buying the air defence system for itself.

As the S-500 is about to make its market debut, the Russian military has recently unveiled plans to develop and deploy the S-550 – an upgrade of the S-500 system. However, the characteristics of the upcoming addition to the Russian air defence forces are currently being withheld.