Venezuela hires Belarus to build an air defence system

Venezuela has hired Belarus to build an air defence system for the Latin America country. Belarus still operates several of the Soviet era air-defence schools, and many Soviet era air defence installations. Two years ago, Belarus received 24 Russian S-300 missile systems. Roughly equivalent to the US Patriot, S-300 was known as the SA-10 to NATO, when the system first appeared in the early 1980s. S-300 missiles weigh 1.8 tonnes each and are 26 feet long and about 20 inches in diameter. The missiles have a range of some 200 kilometres and can hit targets as high as 100,000 feet. Belarus and Russia have integrated their air defences. In 2006, Venezuela said that it was interested in buying S-300 systems from Russia. Venezuela has since ordered shorter range Tor M-1 system.