Along with announcing large-scale live-fire exercises in Crimea on March 20, Russian military officials also officially released images of the S-400 air defense system that the country has deployed to the Black Sea peninsula.
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| Russia's large-scale military exercises in the Crimean Peninsula involved 2,500 airborne troops and approximately 600 pieces of equipment from the Black Sea Fleet and Aerospace Forces. |
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| Three divisions were put on alert simultaneously, and a portion was deployed to Crimea along with weapons and other equipment. |
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| Previously, on January 14th, Russia began deploying an anti-aircraft missile regiment equipped with the S-400 system in Crimea for the first time. However, it was more than two months later that Russia released images of this advanced air defense system. |
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| Lieutenant General Sevastyanov stated that the combat readiness mission in Crimea was carried out simultaneously with the S-300 and S-400 systems. |
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| General Sevastyanov specifically emphasized that Crimea now has the capability to track and shoot down all airborne targets, including "stealth" targets. |
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| The S-400 missile system, developed by the Almaz-Antey Design Bureau of Russia, is an improved version with many more powerful features than the S-300 series of surface-to-air missile systems. This system entered service in April 2007 and was first deployed in the field four months later. |
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| The system can destroy all airborne objects, including aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and ballistic missiles, at an altitude of 50 km and a maximum target speed of up to 4,800 m/s. |
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| The S-400 is capable of tracking 300 targets and simultaneously shooting down 36 of them. Notably, the S-400 is powerful enough to intercept strategic missiles with a range of up to 3,500 km, nearly four times that of the US Patriot system. |
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| This missile system integrates a multi-functional anti-jamming radar, an automatic detection and targeting system, anti-aircraft missiles, launchers, and a command and control center. |
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| The S-400 can fire five types of missiles to create a layered defense mechanism. |
According to TPO
