MOSCOW, January 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian military tracked about 40 foreign and domestic missile and space rocket launches last year, a Defense Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

“In 2012, missile attack early warning systems detected about 40 launches of foreign and domestic ballistic missiles and space rockets,” Col Alexei Zolotukhin said.

The new radar stations that have been put into operation as part of the Russian missile attack early warning system enable it to track not only ballistic targets and space objects but also “aerodynamic targets,” he said.

The system will be even more effective following the creation of the Integrated Space Tracking and Combat Command and Control System, he added.

Russia is able to reliably detect ballistic missile launches and monitor and control all probable directions for a missile attack, Zolotukhin said.