MOSCOW, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia has deployed more than 50 Pantsir anti-aircraft missile and gun systems to protect key facilities from drone attacks, local media reported on Friday.
In an interview with the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, Lieutenant General Andrey Semenov, deputy commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces and head of air and missile defense forces, said significant efforts were made to strengthen air and missile defenses in response to initial attempts by Ukraine to target areas around Moscow and the surrounding region using drones.
Semenov said Russia has "deployed over 50 Pantsir combat vehicles along with other assets designed to counter small-size aerial targets," including man-portable air-defense systems, various electronic warfare tools, and a substantial network of visual observation posts.
The self-propelled Pantsir system is designed for close defense of both civilian and military installations and to cover long-range air defense assets.
The Pantsir-S1 variant used by the Russian Armed Forces features a multi-channel target acquisition and tracking system capable of engaging aerial targets flying at speeds up to 1,000 meters per second, ranging from 200 meters to 20 km. ■
