Ukrainian President reports on successful test of modernized Pechora air defense system
The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, published a new video on his Facebook page. The video shows tests of the modernized S-125M Pechora, a Soviet surface-to-air missile system (SAM system). He added the hashtag #GloryToUkraine to the video.
The Ukrainian president said, "State Concern Ukroboronprom continues to develop air defence equipment for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Recently, a modernized anti-aircraft missile system C-125M Pechora was successfully tested.”
According to him, the specialists at Ukroboronprom, “have managed to greatly increase the accuracy and are able to hit highly manoeuvrable targets.” He also added, “Now the enterprise is preparing for a mass modernization of such missiles.”
The information about the tests of the modernized soviet SAM system S-125 was announced in mid-January. According to Ukroboronprom, after the modernization, the system’s missiles casualty radius was increased to 40 km and altitude to 25 km.
The S-125 Neva system ("Pechora" in an export version) was developed in the second half of the 1950s and was adopted in 1961. Later, several modifications of the S-125 were implemented in the Soviet Union and Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian army began to phase out the system and to replace it with more modern models, including the S-300.