The Russian Armed Forces' unified space system has detected 35 foreign launches of ICBMs during its combat duty, the country's Deputy Defence Minister Alexei Krivoruchko said.
"Field tests were successfully conducted to detect 64 launches of ballistic missiles, including 35 foreign ones and 136 launches of carrier rockets, 97 of them foreign," Krivoruchko said in an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda, the Russian Defense Ministry's official newspaper.
According to the deputy minister, the Unified Space Detection and Combat Control System (EKS) will become the basis of a missile warning system and will significantly reduce the time it usually takes to detect ballistic missile launches, as well as increase the reliability and efficiency of communicating information on missile threats to the country's leadership and the armed forces.
At the moment, according to the deputy defence minister, the EKS includes three satellites.
He also said that Russia will finalise the development of a laser system aimed at destroying drones in 2020.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier this week reiterated his country's willingness to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the United States without preconditions.
The current treaty expires on 5 February 2021, and it is the last remaining arms control treaty in force between Moscow and Washington, limiting the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550.
