Air Defense: October 12, 2002

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Russia has begun shipping upgrade packages to some of the thirty nations that bought old SA-3 anti-aircraft missiles from the Soviet Union. Egypt is thought to be first in line. The upgrades convert the missile from analog to digital technology, make it more resistant to jamming, faster and with a longer range, and with a more lethal warhead. The connections between launch and command vehicles now use fiber optic cables and the launcher can be as much as 10 kilometers from the command vehicle (compared to 70 meters previously).--Stephen V Cole