Why the IAF wants the S-400 missile | Defence Insights
The S-400 system is highly mobile-all radars, missiles and launchers are mounted on 8x8 cross-country trucks, which makes them harder to detect-destro
Editorial Staff
Why the IAF wants the S-400 missile | Defence Insights
The technological leap offered by the System-400's capabilities far outweighs the risk of sanctions from the US and the loss of status of major non-NATO ally. In a massive blue-roofed test facility outside St Petersburg, grim-faced lab coat-wearing technicians swing open 20-foot tall metal doors. Thick white clouds spread out. The long, green silhouette of an 8x8 truck lumbers out, bellowing furiously, its headlights shining through the fog, four giant missile canisters stacked horizontally on the chassis like large logs of wood. This scene from the test facility of Russian missile maker Almaz-Antey's plant could be straight out of a Jurassic Park or Transformers movie franchise. The 8x8 Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL), which launches Russia's most controversial arms export in recent years-the System-400 (S-400) long-range air-defence missile-is being stress-tested in temperatures that are 50 and 70 degrees Celsius below zero. Last October, India signed a $5 billion (Rs 3…
