MOSCOW — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 2 that the Russian army had completed supplying the S-300 missile defense system to Syria. The move is intended to boost security for Russian forces in the country following the downing of an Ilyushin-20 reconnaissance plane over the Mediterranean by Syria's air defense system stemming from what Moscow calls an Israeli provocation.

Shoigu said in a televised statement, “[The installation] includes 49 units of equipment. We have also significantly improved our radio electronic jamming, added some new additional equipment. Today we are in control of the close-in zone of 50 kilometers [31 miles], we also control the far field, the main direction from which we approached the Syrian territory by 200 kilometers. As for the unified air defense control system, we’ve also started supplying [necessary] equipment and are planning to finish all the activities associated with training of the crew and knitting a unified system by Oct. 20.”

The equipment, according to Shoigu, included radars, control vehicles and four launchers. On Oct. 8, Russia’s TASS news agency reported details of the deployment. According to the agency’s source in the Russian military, Moscow delivered three battalion sets of S-300PM systems with eight launchers each as well as more than 100 surface-to-air guided missiles for each battalion.

The source, speaking not for attribution, said, “These systems were previously deployed at one of the Russian aerospace forces’ regiments which now uses the S-400 Triumf systems. The S-300 systems underwent capital repairs at Russian defense enterprises, are in good condition and are capable of performing combat tasks."