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WASHINGTON – Despite their differences, Russia is eager to sell some of its newest military technology to China, even though the Middle Kingdom has irked the Kremlin for reverse engineering some previous acquisitions, such as fighter jets, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
But that hasn't stopped Moscow now from offering Beijing its S-400 Triumf, touted by the publicity surrounding the missile system as "the most formidable long-range anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense system in the world."
The anti-aircraft and anti-missile system can intercept targets at up to 400 kilometers, or almost 250 miles – which is said to be twice the range of the U.S. MIM-104 Patriot.
The S-400 system also is said to be able to intercept stealth aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles which have a range of up to 3,500 kilometers, or 2,175 miles, and traveling at a speed of up to 4.8 kilometers, or three miles, a second, which is 10,800 miles per hour.
Each S-400 battalion has at least eight launchers with 32 missiles. Russia now has deployed the S-400 system and intends to produce 18 battalions with a total arsenal of 576 missiles by 2015.
China wants the Triumf by 2015 but probably won't get it until 2017.
In the past, Russia also had supplied the very capable S-300 anti-aircraft and anti-missile system to China which may be the source of Iran obtaining its technology to produce its own S-300-like missile system which it just unveiled.
Analysts say that Iran's version is at least comparable to the Russian S-300, which Moscow was going to sell to Tehran but reneged due to United Nations sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.
Once China has the S-400, it may be just a matter of time before Iran similarly receives this latest missile system's upgraded technology if the Russians don't sell it to Tehran.
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