Estonia retires last Soviet-era radars

Tallinn, March 8 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Estonia's air defence forces have dismantled their last obsolete Soviet-made radars, the country's armed forces said.

One P-37 type radar will be installed as a monument at the Amari military base, while another will be sent to an aviation museum.

At present, two radar stations monitor Estonia's airspace - a TPS-77 at Kallavere, in western Estonia and an ASR-8 at Amari, not far from Tallinn.

Later this month, a new radar station will be opened on Muhu Island featuring a medium-range Ground Master 430 3D air-defence radar with an effective range of up to 470 km and an altitude of up to 30 km.

Another post-Soviet republic, Belarus, said in February it would replace a Russian radar station with an indigenous one and dispose of its Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 fighters.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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