A Russian S-400 Triumph air defense system. Photo by RIA Novosti
Russia's Aerospace Defense Force "successfully" tested a short-range anti-missile defense system on Tuesday, according to a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman.
"The Aerospace Forces and defense industry successfully tested a Russian short-range anti-missile defense system at Sary-Shagan range at 12.01 p.m. on Tuesday October 16," Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said, as cited by RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
The launch was carried out to confirm the system's effectiveness and its performance specifications, he said.
"The anti-missile system test was successful and it succeeded in destroying a test target in the time set," Aerospce Forces Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Valery Bratishenko said.
The Aerospace Forces have not disclosed what system was involved, but in July 2012 Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Dmitry Zenin said Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces would carry out their first test-firings of the new S-400 air defense missile system in August.
The S-400 system uses a combination of three different types of missile to engage targets at up to 250 miles (40N6 missile), 160 miles (48N6 missile) and 70 miles (9M96 missile), according to globalsecurity.org.