Recently, cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan is gaining momentum. More than eight dozen military agreements alone have been signed. Among them is the March plan of strategic partnership between the countries. Cooperation also applies to joint exercises: in 2010, there were ten of them, and in the current one - 12 have already been held. The supply of weapons has not been forgotten either: they are carried out simultaneously by Rosoboronexport and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Now a new one has been added to the old agreements. The two countries will create a joint air defense system similar to those already made between Russia and Belarus, as well as Russia and Armenia.
Thanks to the creation of a unified air defense system, Kazakhstan gets a unique opportunity to acquire the S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems, which so far are in service only with Russia and are prohibited from being sold abroad. However, the Kazakh side will not receive new complexes today or tomorrow. The production resources of the Almaz-Antey concern are now occupied with the manufacture of Triumphs for Russia. In turn, production of the S-400 for Kazakhstan will begin only in a few years. According to various estimates, it will have to wait until 2014-15.
During this time, the entire infrastructure of management, communications, etc. should be created. unified air defense system. Until the system is created and Kazakhstan has not received the "Triumph", its anti-aircraft gunners will use the systems of the previous generation - the S-300PMU2 - the newest export version of this air defense system.
Negotiations are also underway on the supply of Russian military air defense systems. The delivery of the Pantsir-S air defense system is already planned. In addition to the Pantsir, Kazakhstan is likely to start purchasing the Tor-2ME short-range and Buk-2ME medium-range missile systems intended for direct cover of troops from the air enemy.
Russian Defense Minister A. Serdyukov said that the future deliveries of new anti-aircraft missile systems to Kazakhstan and the creation of a single air defense system with this country are bringing closer the day when all CSTO countries will be protected by a single anti-aircraft and anti-missile shield.
Recall, unlike older systems, the S-400 can hit not only targets such as "aircraft" or "cruise missile", but also warheads of intercontinental missiles, which makes the "Triumph" a universal system for protecting objects. The defeat of aerodynamic targets (aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles, etc.) with S-400 missiles is possible at a range of 2 to 400 kilometers, ballistic (ballistic missile warheads) - from 7 to 60 km. The height of target destruction is from 5 meters to 30 km.
If everything is clear with air defense, then with regard to anti-missile defense, the question arises: from whom are we defending ourselves? The answer is logical: in recent years, there has been a lot of talk in the international arena about the possibility of strategic missiles emerging from "unreliable countries" like Iran or North Korea. At the same time, the United States and Europe are creating their own missile defense system located in Europe. But Kazakhstan is geographically closer to Iran than Poland or the Czech Republic. Therefore, the very fact that the Kazakhs deployed "universal" missiles on their territory looks like a correct and logical move.
As for Russia's cooperation with Kazakhstan, and not with the European-American side, the clue may lie in the fact that Russia has not yet received guarantees from the creators of the Euro-Atlantic missile defense system that this system will not be directed towards Russia.
There is also an opinion that Russia, while maintaining relations with China, cannot participate in strategic military projects of countries with more complicated relations with the Celestial Empire.
The statement of the Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry V. Kozin speaks in favor of the opinion about guarantees for the Euro-Atlantic system. He doubts that the planned deployment of nine hundred interceptor missiles by 2015 is too massive a measure for the alleged defense against promising Iranian and North Korean missiles. At the same time, Kozin noted, American experts openly declare that such a number of interceptor missiles will be enough for defense against Russia, and this is already a reason for doubting the honesty of the motives of the creators of the Euro-Atlantic missile defense system.
In the meantime, while there are disputes about the reasons for the deployment of missile defense systems in a particular country, military cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan continues. There is no talk of delivering new modernized T-90S tanks to the Kazakh side yet, said V. Gerasimov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, but supplies are being made in other directions. For example, at the parade on August 30 in Astana, among other equipment, BMPT tank support vehicles "Frame", also known under the nickname "Terminator", the TOS-1A "Solntsepek" flamethrower system and a number of other samples were shown.
In addition to the supply of the equipment itself, Russia and Kazakhstan are actively cooperating in the field of communications of various levels for the troops.
