The Russian military has reportedly tested advanced missiles that may be able to evade detection by radar technology at its biggest war games in four decades, currently underway near the Chinese border.
The Vostok-2018 (East-2018) drills taking place in eastern Siberia involve 300,000 Russian troops, 1,000 military aircraft and 36,000 tanks. The exercises, which are being performed in part with the Chinese army, come amid a post-Cold War low for relations between Russia and the West.
The maneuvers at the games this week included efforts to detect and destroy 30 missiles simulating an attack across a range of altitudes and speeds using radar crews and anti-aircraft units.
A senior air defense forces commander told the Defense Ministry-run Zvezda publication some of the technology tested includes “invisible missile simulators with low radar visibility, using stealth technology.”
“These target missiles outperform all known existing foreign equivalents,” Zvezda quoted anti-aircraft unit commander Colonel Sergei Tikhonov as saying Thursday.
A YouTube video from the Defense Ministry video showed several missile systems destroying the “stealth missiles” at a high altitude.
Reuters contributed reporting.
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