Russia to start delivery of airborne defense system to Egypt in weeks

Russia will start shipping President-S airborne optical and electronic defense systems to Egypt in a few weeks, the system's producer said Friday.

"Deliveries will start in the near future, and we are talking literally about a few weeks," the Tass news agency quoted Igor Nasenkov, first deputy CEO of the Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET), as saying.

KRET, a subsidiary of Russian state technology corporation Rostec, announced the signing of the contract with Egypt last December, without specifying its details.

Nasenkov said then KRET was not the contract holder in the deal with Egypt.

President-S is designed for individual protection of airplanes and helicopters from land and sea-based antiaircraft missile attacks, KRET said on its website.

After detecting and tracking missiles, the onboard system directs a coded laser beam at the missiles' multi-spectral optical seeker and electronically jams the missiles' guidance system, disrupting their tracking abilities and steering them away from the aircraft.

President-S system has already been installed on airplanes used by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Il-76 military transport airplanes, as well as Ka-52 and Mi-28 combat helicopters and Mi-26 heavy transport and assault helicopters, KRET said.

In November of 2015, KRET said it was also in talks to supply President-S systems to Algeria. Endi