Pentagon Secretly Buys Parts of Russian Defense System

A huge Russian transport plane that mysteriously landed at Huntsville International Airport in Alabama last week carried an unusual cargo, government and industry sources said: parts of an advanced Russian air defense system that had been purchased by the Pentagon in a secret deal brokered by a Virginia company.

At the nearby Redstone Arsenal and other military facilities, technicians plan to assemble the system and test its ability to spot U.S. planes and missiles. That will help in the design of new U.S. air defense systems and of new aircraft meant to be able to evade Russian-built radar.

The $50-million deal that brought the system, known as the SA-10, to the United States is the latest chapter in an unusual, years-old intelligence operation that has outlasted the Cold War.

It was brokered by BDM International Inc. of McLean, Va., an information technology firm. The company scouts out and buys Russian weapons that the CIA and the Pentagon have for years wanted to test.

Competition among such companies has become more intense, industry and military sources said, as Russia and other former Soviet republics have slid into economic decline, and as more former Communist officials jump at the chance to sell their nations’ high-tech equipment to foreign bidders.

The shipment that was headed for the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville was one of several in recent months containing high-tech components of the SA-10 air defense network, government and industry sources said.

The parts--including a truck stuffed with computers, radar and missiles--will be assembled and studied to find ways the United States can improve its missiles, such as Raytheon’s Patriot and Lockheed’s Theater High-Altitude Area Defense missile.