"A contract on building the Voronezh radar will be concluded during 2019," one of the sources said.

KUBINKA /Moscow Region/, June 26. /TASS/. Russia’s top brass will sign a contract on building the Voronezh-CM early missile warning radar in Sevastopol, which is set to enter service by late 2020, two sources in the defense industry told TASS on the sidelines of the Army-2019 forum on Wednesday.

The other source confirmed to TASS that under the existing plans the Voronezh-CM radar of the national early missile warning system was due to be built in Crimea before the end of 2020. The radar’s construction requires about 18 months, the source said. "By December 2020, the radar station in Crimea is due to go operational," the source said, adding that in case of a delay with the contract’s signing, the timeframe of putting the radar into operation would be rescheduled.

Missile early warning radar stations are designated to obtain and provide data on missile launches and missile trajectories to warn about a missile strike against state and military command and control centers. They also provide data on space objects for outer space control. New-generation Voronezh radar stations make up the backbone of Russia’s ground-based missile early warning system echelon.

Four new Voronezh radar stations are on combat duty in the Leningrad, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk and Krasnodar Regions. Three more Voronezh new radar stations have entered experimental combat duty in the Krasnoyarsk, Altai and Orenburg Regions.

The Voronezh-CM is the most advanced radar with the high-precision target detecting capability. Its index indicates the station’s centimeter (cm) wavelength. The cm radar is capable of gathering maximum data on any target within its coverage area.