Russia’s new S-550 air defense system has successfully passed state trials and entered combat service. The first S-550 brigade has entered combat duty. The source described the new system as “a new and unrivaled mobile system of strategic missile defense,” capable of “hitting spacecraft, ballistic missile reentry vehicles and hypersonic targets at altitudes of tens of thousands of kilometers.” The new system becomes a part of Russia’s comprehensive missile and air defense, comprised of Pantsir systems (low-altitude), long-range S-350, S-400, and S-500 systems, and S-550 (in space).
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the ministry’s conference call on November 9 that at defense industry meetings in Sochi in November Russian President Vladimir Putin had emphasized the importance of delivering S-350, S-500, and S-550 air and missile defense systems to the Russian troops. The S-550 would feature a longer-range target detection and missile interception capability. The S-550 system was not an attempt to revive an eponymous Soviet-era project, although some unimplemented concepts of it were used while creating the modern version.
