MOSCOW, November 14 (Sputnik) – Media reports about a contract to sell S-300VM mobile air defense missile systems to Egypt are untrue, the Russian state body overseeing defense contracts said Friday.
"The FSMTC does not confirm reports by numerous Russian and Western media about the signing of a contract to deliver S-300VM air defense systems," the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) said in a statement Friday.
In September, Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported that Egypt had entered into an agreement to buy S-300VM air defense systems for about $500 million from Russia.
The same month, the FSMTC head, Alexander Fomin, reported that Moscow and Cairo had agreed preliminary arms contracts worth $3.5 billion. Last year, Russian defense industry official Sergey Chemezov told Sputnik that arms exports to Egypt would include deliveries of air defense systems and artillery.
The S-300 system is a family of long-range air defense missile systems capable of engaging all types of airborne threats including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters and planes, and ballistic and cruise missiles. The S-300 system is widely acknowledged as one of the most capable systems of its type in the world.
The S-300VM/Antei-2500 (NATO reporting name SA-23 Gladiator) is a mobile air defense system that can simultaneously destroy up to 24 aircraft within a range of up to 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) or intercept up to 16 ballistic missiles.
