Russia confirms deployment of Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad region
The Russian Ministry of Defense of Russia has confirmed deployment of Iskander-M missile systems in Kaliningrad Oblast for the first time, reported Interfax, citing a representative of the Russian Defense Ministry.
"Last Thursday, during nighttime training for the Victory Parade for the Kaliningrad community, several Iskander-M military vehicles were specially demonstrated. Residents of the Russian exclave should see and understand that the Russian army’s most modernized weaponry stands in the region’s defense,” the source said.
According to the representative, the Iskander systems were delivered to Kaliningrad at the beginning of the year. They are in service with the 152nd Guards Missile Brigade, which is part of the Baltic Fleet Army Corps and is deployed in the city of Chernyakhovsk.
"As a result, the Baltic Fleet has a brigade set of these systems. They are already actively participating in combat training. However, unlike the previous generation of Tochka-U missile systems, realistic firing toward military landfills will not be performed with the Iskander missiles in order not to induce a trance on our neighbors from Lithuania and Poland," concluded the agency's source.
Russia has already deployed advanced Russian S-400 air defense systems, as well as Bal and Bastion coastal missile systems in Kaliningrad Oblast.
In October 2016, it was reported that Russia had moved the Iskander-M missile systems to Kaliningrad Oblast. Later on, the Defense Ministry confirmed this information, saying that the Iskander missiles had repeatedly been transferred earlier to Kaliningrad "as part of combat training."