Russia To Supply China With New S-400s to Replace Missile Systems Damaged in 2018 Storm

Russia will supply China with new S-400 surface-to-air missile systems as a replacement for the ones that were damaged in a storm last year during the delivery process.

“The contract was signed long ago and the order would have been completed by now. However, the ship that was carrying the missiles was hit by a storm and was damaged. So, we destroyed them and decided to make new ones instead,” Sergei Chemezov, chief of Rostec corporation was quoted by TASS as saying Monday at the IDEX-2019 event.

While two ships carrying a regimental set of the S-400 systems was received by China in April, one ship was hit by a strong storm in the English Channel in January 2018. The storm damaged the equipment and the transport ship that was carrying the missiles had to return to the port of departure for examination of the cargo.

The contract between China and Russia for the supply of the S-400 systems was announced in November 2014. Neither the exact number of units nor the types of missiles slated to be delivered to China have been revealed by Russia. The deal is estimated to be worth $3 billion.

The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler) is a Russian long and medium range air defense missile system. It is meant for hitting attack and reconnaissance aircraft (including stealth aircraft) and any other air targets amid intensive fire and radio electronic jamming. It is designed to engage, radar-picket, director area, reconnaissance, strategic and tactical aircraft, tactical and theatre ballistic missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles and other current and future air attack assets at a maximum range of 400 km, and a altitude of up to 30 km.