Russia to launch 20 radar stations in 2013

MOSCOW - Some 20 new radar stations will come into service this year, a spokesman of Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces said Tuesday.

The radars include Gamma-S, Nebo-U, Podlyot-K, Desna and Kasta systems, which will enable the military to better detect and monitor space objects and ballistic and aerodynamic targets, Alexei Zolotukhin was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

He gave no further details on the exact number and whereabouts of these radar stations.

On Sunday, the spokesman said that with the Integrated Space Tracking and Combat Command and Control System, the Russian military had tracked about 40 launches of foreign and domestic ballistic missiles and space rockets in 2012.

He also announced Sunday that Russia would build three Voronezh radar stations this year, two in Siberia and the other in the central Orenburg region.