to guard against future Iranian missile developments. Russia has said the Iranians aren’t doing anything to be concerned about. Now, the Russian military has announced plans to upgrade a radar base in Azerbaijan to keep a closer watch on Iranian missile developments.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told reporters Friday that Russia wants to continue leasing the Qabala radar site it uses in Azerbaijan and intends to upgrade the radar there.
Modernizing the radar “is useful and very important, in particular given the Iranian [missile] program” he said.
The Qabala radar has long been part of Russia’s missile attack warning system.
The current lease expires in 2012. Russia pays Azerbaijan $14 million a year for the site.
Serdyukov said Azerbaijan wants to “drastically increase the rent.” He said Russia wants to keep the rent level but can reduce the size of the base. “Given the stations new characteristics, we do not need such a great volume of communications and engineering space. The water and power consumption would not be so high either,” he said.
He did not explain what new capabilities would be included to watch Iranian missile developments.
