Russia Upgrades Kalibr After Syria Campaign.

The Russian defence industry has upgraded the Kalibr missile after using the system as part of the Syria campaign. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in his interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets published on Sunday.

Kalibr cruise missile improved (Picture source: Russia MoD)

Speaking to Moskovsky Komsomolets over the weekend, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Kalibr cruise missile had been 'finetuned' after its usage in Syria. Commenting on the nature of the adjustments, he noted that Russia has lessened the time it takes to ready the missile for launch after a target has been acquired.

He said that, previously, it "took so long to upload a flight mission for the Kalibr missile that a target could be missed." Now, after upgrade work, "it takes much less to upload a flight mission for Kalibr."

The Kalibr cruise missile's land-attack variant has a range of around 2,500 kilometres and can be launched from both surface vessels and submarines. Beginning in 2015, Russia has used the missile to target militant groups in Syria, as part of Moscow's effort to back the Syrian government against insurgent forces.

Russia's military has used the campaign to test a wide variety of equipment, some of which had not seen any combat deployment prior. Defense Minister Shoigu stated that the Russian defence industry has finetuned around 300 types of weapons as a result of the military's experience in Syria. A dozen weapons, which previously were considered ready for service, have been taken out of production and are no longer in service, thanks to their poor performance in Syria. Defense Minister Shoigu declined to identify which systems those were.

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