As ties between Russia and Kazakhstan advance, Moscow is set to deploy the Krokus warning system in the Central Asian country in 2020. Russia aims to fulfil its pledge of providing Kazakhstan with information on a missile attack, Russian Space Force Commander Colonel-General Alexander Golovko said.
“Our commitments stipulate providing them [Kazakhstan] with information on a missile attack. We will carry it through this year… There is the Krokus warning system and precisely this system for Kazakhstan will be installed this year,” the general said during a session of the International Affairs Committee in the upper house of Russia’s parliament.
A report by Russian news agency – Tass writes that before the summer of 2020, the Balkhash radar centre in Kazakhstan functioned as the Russian missile attack warning system. It provided the radar field for missile attack warning in the southern strategic aerospace direction.
It is located on the west coast of Lake Balkhash near Sary Shagan test site in Kazakhstan. Even though it is used for tracking satellites in low Earth orbit it is mainly a key part of the Russian system of warning against missile attack.
The radar in Kazakhstan was withdrawn from its combat alert on June 1 this year. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said on July 21 that the need for this radar had completely disappeared after four advanced radars were deployed on the Russian territory.
The lower house of Russia’s parliament adopted a bill on Tuesday on annulling a pact with Kazakhstan on the terms of the transfer and the procedure for the further use of the Balkhash station in Kazakhstan as the Russian missile attack warning system.
