ANAPA, July 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Armed Forces will adopt new BAL coastal defense missile systems in 2006, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday.
He said the Rubezh missile systems would be replaced with the BAL systems. Ivanov added that the first batch of the new systems would be delivered in 2006 to Kamchatka - a peninsula in the Russian Far East washed by the Okhotsk and Bering seas.
According to available information, the BAL mobile coastal system is designed to defend coastal facilities and make their combat capabilities more stable. It detects and tracks surface targets, and then destroys them with X-35 anti-ship cruise missiles.
The system can both fire single shots and salvos. A simultaneous launch of 32 X-35E missiles, which have a range of up to 110 kilometers, is capable of disrupting a large-scale landing operation or destroying a ship attack group.
After reloading, the BAL launch installations will be able to fire another 32 missiles at ships or new targets.
BAL systems will be modernized in the future. They will have unmanned aerial vehicles attached to missiles to detect the enemy and false target-installing means to protect them from enemy strikes.
