Is Russian Defense System in Syria Based on Sputnik Technology?

Remember how we learned about the impressive way Russia started off the race to go into space? Now it seems that some revision is in order:

But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age.

Now Syria and Iran may be wondering if the defense system they paid for was slapped together the same way.

[Hat tip: Instapundit]

Technorati Tag: Sputnik and Russia.