Article Posted on : - Mar 06, 2009

S-300 air defence system. RIA Novosti image

MOSCOW (BNS): Kazakh defence minister Danial Akhmetov announced that his country had signed a contract with Russia for the purchase of S-300 air defence missile systems.

“We recently signed a contract with Russia for purchase of S-300 systems,” Kazakh defence minister said in Astana.

“Delivery of S-300 systems would help the republic’s integration into the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and significantly enhance the protection of the country’s airspace,” Akhmetov was quoted as saying sometime back.

In February, Kazakhstan announced plans to equip 10 battalions with S-300 air defence missile systems bought from Russia, with deliveries set to begin this year. Russian news agency RIA Novosti said that the latest version of the S-300 family is the S-300PMU2 Favorit, which has a range of up to 195 km (about 120 miles) and can intercept aircraft and ballistic missiles at altitudes from 10 meters to 27 km. It is considered one of the world’s most effective all-altitude regional air defence systems, comparable in performance to the US MIM-104 Patriot system, the agency said.

Media reports said that Russia announced last year that it was planning to expand military-technical cooperation with members of the CSTO and set up an integrated air defence network with them. The CSTO is a post-Soviet security grouping comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.