But it will take more than seven years to equip 24 battalions with the new S-400 Triumf, Army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky, the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, said Tuesday, according to a report by RIA Novosti.

The report described the S-400 -- NATO codename SA-21 Growler -- as "a new air defense missile system developed by the Almaz Central Design Bureau as an upgrade of the S-300 family."

"Over two dozen battalions are to be equipped with such systems by 2015," Baluyevsky said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the report said.

The report came the day after the first S-400 battalion became operational to protect Moscow.

According to the RIA Novosti report, Baluyevsky said the S-400 was "based on new solutions and promising technologies."

"There are almost no such systems in the world," he added.

The report said the S-400 was planned with the capabilities "to intercept and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles), or twice the range of the MIM-104 Patriot, and 2.5 times that of the S-300PMU-2. It is capable of destroying stealth aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with an effective range of up to 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) and a speed of up to 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) per second (10,800 miles per hour."

"The system has good prospects for using nanotechnologies, besides others, to increase striking range and height," Baluyevsky said.