Russia unveils air defence, eyes U.S. missile shield

By Guy Faulconbridge and Dmitry Solovyov

MOSOCW (Reuters) - Russia unveiled a new air defence system on Monday that its designers say will be used as the basis of a new generation of Russian missile-intercepting weapons.

Russian television stations gave wide coverage to the deployment of the S-400 air defence system, a modernised version of a Soviet-designed surface-to-air missile unit.

"The real effectiveness of this complex is its ability to destroy ballistic targets, ballistic missiles, aerodynamic targets," Vadim Volkovitsky, deputy air force commander in charge of anti-aircraft defence, told NTV television.

"So not only the functions of air defence but also anti-missile defence," he said.

Russia has been bickering with the United States over Washington's plans to deploy elements of an anti-missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The United States says the shield is intended to defend against missiles from "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea and that it could not defeat Russia's giant nuclear arsenal.

But President Vladimir Putin says the shield would hurt Russia's interests and Russian generals have said Moscow will develop its own anti-missile defence shield in retaliation.

The Vremya Novostei newspaper reported that the S-400 would be used as a basis for a Russian anti-missile defence system. The designers of the S-400 Triumf said they were already working on a mobile anti-missile defence system.

"Our next task is a system called the S-500, an anti-missile system, a mobile anti-missile defence system, a fifth generation system as one element of Russia's unified system of anti-missile defence," said Igor Ashurbeili, general director of the Almaz design bureau.

A Russian Orthodox priest was shown on television blessing the new weapons at a deployment ceremony in the city of Elekrostal in greater Moscow. The systems will initially defend Moscow and central Russia.

The S-400 can destroy targets travelling at up to 5 km per second, including aircraft and medium-range ballistic missiles, though not intercontinental missiles, which travel too fast. It has a range of up to 400 km.