Russia’s military stops using Kazakh Balkhash radar station

Russia has ceased using Kazakhstan’s Balkhash radar station as part of its missile attack warning system, which now deploys more advanced equipment on its own soil, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The Ministry statement said the Balkhash station would no longer be used because of the expiration of the corresponding agreement between the two countries.

The deal, signed in 2014, ran out on 16 December 2023.

The Balkhash station, also known as Sary Shagan radar node, was built in 1964. After a period of testing, since the 1970s it was a key part of the Soviet and then Russian early warning air defence systems.

Located by Lake Balkhash in western Kazakhstan, in the last years of its service it deployed the Dnepr radar system to monitor low orbit satellites, covering missile launches in western and central China, India, Pakistan and the Bay of Bengal.

The station has been practically out of use since 2020, following Russia’s deployment of four new radar stations in its own territory equipped with the more advanced Voronezh system — in Armavir, Orsk, Barnaul and Irkutsk. Russia also no longer produces parts for the old Dnepr system.

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