Voronezh-type radar site put on combat duty in southern Russia

Voronezh-type radar site put on combat duty in southern Russia

20:29 | 26/ 02/ 2009

MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s new Voronezh-type radar
site in the southern town of Armavir was put on combat duty on
Thursday, the head of the Moscow-based Military Forecast Center said.

"I confirm that a new and more powerful Voronezh-DM radar in Armavir
has been put on combat duty tracking missile routes in the south and
southeast [of Russia] in place of warning sites in Mukachevo [western
Ukraine] and Sevastopol [the Crimea]," Anatoly Tsyganok said.

Russia terminated a 1997 agreement with Ukraine on the use of both
radars in Sevastopol and Mukachevo in February 2008 on the grounds that
they had become operationally obsolete.

With an effective range of 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) the
Voronezh-type radar has capabilities similar to its predecessors, the
Dnepr and Daryal, which are currently deployed outside Russia, but uses
less energy and is more environmentally friendly.

Washington wants to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar
station in the neighboring Czech Republic, purportedly to counter a
missile threat from Iran and other "rogue" states. Russia has fiercely
opposed the plans, saying the European shield would destroy the
strategic balance of forces and threaten Russia’s national interests.