Russia, August 22 — Russia’s newest Beriev A-100 AWACS (airborne early warning and control) aircraft is scheduled for test flight next March with “maiden flight by 2018”.
The new Russian Air Force A-100 is said to be able to detect enemy targets at ranges exceeding 600km (372.8 miles).
Conjectures & Speculations
This is fairly significant because these system are likely to be able to tie in with the current S-400 (NATO SA-21 Growler) anti-air systems. The 40N6 missiles on SA-21 Growler have operational range of 400km (248.5 miles).
These AWACS could also tie in with the newest Russian hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles (3M22 Zircon) with reported range of 400km (248.5 miles) with speeds at 5-6x the speed of sound. These newest generation of anti-ship missiles are scheduled for serial production sometime in 2018 according to TASS state agency.
Read the full article about Briev A-100 at RT.com
Read the full article about 3M22 Zircon anti-ship cruise missile at TASS.ru