Moscow, Aug 11 (RIA Novosti) Russia will create by 2020 a new generation of air and space defences to counter any strikes against its territory due to a potential foreign threat, the country's air force commander said Tuesday.

'By 2030...foreign countries, particularly the US, will be able to deliver coordinated high-precision strikes from air and space against any target on the whole territory of Russia,' Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said, referring to the potential for new hypersonic and space-based offensive weapons.

'That is why the main goal of the development of the Russian Air Force until 2020 is to create a new branch of the armed forces, which would form the core of the country's air and space defences to provide a reliable deterrent during peacetime, and repel any military aggression with the use of conventional and nuclear arsenals in a time of war,' the general said.

According to Zelin, all Russian Air Force units will be constantly combat-ready by 2020. 'We are planning to conduct a gradual transition of air force units to a constant combat-ready status...and accomplish this task by 2020,' the commander said.

During this period, the air force will bring combat units to full strength, equip them with modernised and new weaponry, and significantly improve combat training of military pilots.

Zelin said under the new concept, air-space defence brigades will be created within Russia's Air Force, and they will be equipped with advanced S-400 and planned S-500 air defence systems.

'In line with the new air-space defence concept, we have already formed a number of brigades, which will be armed with S-400 and S-500 air defence systems,' Zelin said at a news conference in Moscow.