Gabala radar not menace for Armenia but just trump for Baku in relations with Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Gabala radar station is a high capacity and expensive system and it is hardly possible for Russia to build another one, according to military expert Artsrun Hovhannisyan.

“For Russia the station becomes more and more substantial,” the expert said.

“This station is not menace for Armenia, but it is a trump for Baku in relations with Russia. In future Gabala radar station may be of utmost importance in talks around European Missile Defense,” Hovhannisyan told Analitika.at.ua in an interview.

Moscow considers that Russian radar stations with missile warning system located in Gabala, Azerbaijan and Armavir may be significant for a unified European Missile Defense.

The Qabala Radar or Qabala Radar Station is a Daryal-type bistatic phased-array early warning radar, built by the Soviet Union in the Qabala district of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1985. It is now operated by the Russian Space Forces. The radar station has a range of up to 6,000 kilometres (3,728 mi), and was designed to detect missile launches from south and south-eastern directions. It allows not only detection of the launch of a missile but also to track the whole of its trajectory so as to enable a ballistic missile defense system to intercept an offensive strike.

A new-generation radar station with ballistic missile early warning system was built near Armavir in 2012. A similar radar station, located in Lekhtusi, near St. Petersburg, became operational in late 2006.