The latest Rezonans-N radar system will enter service no sooner than mid-March 2020 after the arrival of personnel, CEO of the Rezonans Research Center (the radar’s manufacturer) Ivan Nazarenko told TASS on Wednesday. The system is capable of spotting hypersonic missiles and deployed on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in November last year.

"On February 26 this year, two-week training began at the Russian Defense Ministry’s training center in the town of Vladimir for its 12 servicemen who are officers and also for graduation course cadets of the Yaroslavl Higher Air Defense Military School in the basics of the proper operation and combat employment of the Rezonans-N radar," the chief executive said.

Upon the completion of the training on March 12, all the trainees will receive certificates giving them the right to operate radars of this type, "after which the officers will be immediately sent to the Northern Fleet for manning the radar on Novaya Zemlya and other similar stations in the Arctic," he stated.

"Therefore, the Rezonans-N radar on Novaya Zemlya can go on combat duty no sooner than mid-March," he specified.

The Rezonans Research Center has used "its own funds" to organize the training for the Defense Ministry’s servicemen in the operation and the combat employment of Rezonans-N radars, the chief executive stressed.

Currently, the Rezonans-N radar deployed on Novaya Zemlya and transferred to the Northern Fleet’s air defense units "is being operated by one officer — a specialist trained by the manufacturer," he pointed out.

Rezonans radars operate in the meter band and employ the principle of wave resonance, which allows detecting aircraft based on stealth technology and also hypersonic targets flying at a speed of up to Mach 20. The radar is capable of detecting targets and issuing target acquisition on aerodynamic targets at a distance of 600 km and at a range of 1,200 km on ballistic targets, at an altitude of up to 100 km.