MOSCOW, January 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces will received about 20 new radar stations this year, a Defense Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

The radars will include systems of different classes and modifications, including Gamma-S, Nebo-U and Podlyot-K, as well as modernized Desna and Kasta systems, Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.

He said on Sunday the Russian military had tracked about 40 launches of foreign and domestic ballistic missiles and space rockets last year. 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 added.

The system will be even more effective following the creation of the Integrated Space Tracking and Combat Command and Control System. Russia is able to reliably detect ballistic missile launches and monitor and control all probable directions for a missile attack, Zolotukhin said.

The ministry also said Russia will start building new radar stations later this year.

Russia announced it will no longer rent the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan. The lease, signed in 2002, expired in December. Russia is replacing the Gabala radar station, which has played a crucial role in its missile defense system, with a new system based at Armavir in Russia’s southern Krasnodar Territory.