The S-500, designed by Almaz Antei, is said to have a range of 600 kilometers. The system can simultaneously intercept up to ten ballistic and hypersonic missiles traveling at a speed of up to 7 kilometers per second.
The S-500 will be a major upgrade to the state-of-the-art S-400 complex that is already in service, and also its US counterpart – the Patriot Advanced Capability-3.
US defense officials are concerned that the S-500 missile defense system is so good that the best stealth warplanes in the Pentagon's arsenal will be unable to do anything about it.
"It is clear the S-500 is intended to serve as a high-altitude antiballistic missile system for home defense, and that its very long range could make it useful for anti-access/area denial and antisatellite tasks. It is also evident that it is designed to be mobile and hard to detect or hack into, so as to resist air-defense suppression strikes," Sébastien Roblin wrote for the National Interest.
The first regiment of the S-500 missile systems that are believed to have no equal in the world will defend Moscow and central Russia.
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