S-400 missile defense systems (NATO codename SA-21 Growler) will be deployed later that previously expected, the commander of Russia's Air Force said today. "The deployment of the new S-400 missile defense system is postponed due to objective reasons," the Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Colonel-General Alexander Zelin as saying, without mentioning the exact reasons. He added that S-400 will certainly be deployed in summer. Earlier it was reported the first S-400 systems were to be deployed July 1, 2007. The S-400 Triumf is a new air defense missile system developed by the Almaz Central Design Bureau as an upgrade of the S-300 family. It has been designed to intercept and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles), or twice the range of the MIM-104 Patriot, and 2.5 times that of the S-300PMU-2. In April, Colonel-General Yury Solovyov, commander of the Air Defense Forces Special Command (former Moscow Military District Air Defense Command), said the system could also be used for limited purposes in missile and space defense, but that it is not intended to destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles. -- SPA
