Russia to restore space echelons of missile defence system

The Russian Defense Ministry will restore the space-based echelon of the missile attack early warning system, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov told reporters on Thursday. He said the missile launch monitoring spacecraft are part of the missile warning system, its first echelon. The system will also comprise a network of ground-based radar stations.
Russia is currently developing a single space system that is set to become a space echelon of the missile warning system, designed to detect and track launches of ballistic missiles around the world.
Borisov said the nuclear strike systems are now actively being developed, in particular, the creation of manoeuvring ballistic targets and the missile penetration system development is underway, so the role and place of the space echelon of the missile warning system will be constantly growing.
General designer of the missile warning system Sergey Boyev told TASS in early October that the first new satellites will be orbited in 2015.
The last satellite of the Oko-1 system that had been created in the 1990s for warning about launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) was decommissioned in April. The military said then that of the total 6 spacecraft in the missile warning system’s space echelon only 2 remained and so they could perform their tasks only for three hours per day.
“The system restoration work is going on schedule,” the deputy defense minister said. “After the first launches of the satellites that will form the unified space system, the first echelon’s importance will be increasing.” He said Russia “actually has no unprotected territories.” “We are reliably protected from all missile-threat directions. The work will be continued,” he said.
The Western sanctions against Russia are unlikely to seriously affect the terms of the project’s implementation and the quality of the system, the chief designer said.