The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft blasting off from the launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome on November 24. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov Russia just lost its early-warning system for detecting ballistic missiles because of delays in the launch of its new "Tundra" advanced early-warning system.

According to Russia's Kommersant newspaper, the system was due to replace ageing satellites launched as part of the Oko programme that had already exceeded their expected life span of five to seven years. The system had been beset by technical problems, and in January this year the last two satellites, which were operational for only a few hours each day, finally went offline.

The Tundra satellites, designed to be capable of tracking tactical as well as ballistic missiles, were first scheduled for launch in 2013. But technical problems delayed the programme, with its revised launch date in 2014 already having been missed. It is now scheduled to be launched "no earlier than June 2015," according to Kommersant.

The loss of geostationary satellites risks weakening Russia's early-warning system for missile launches. Sources at the Russian Ministry of Defence say the loss is being compensated for by radar systems on the ground located in the Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Irkutsk, and Krasnodar regions of the country.

However, it is impossible to verify those claims.

What we know is that in September last year Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the creation of the Unified Space System Tundra was "one of the key areas of nuclear deterrence." The repeated delays to the programme will be an embarrassment for a government that has pledged to boost high-tech industry in Russia and to the minister in particular, who has taken a personal interest in the project.