Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport has confirmed filing a lawsuit against Baltic Trans-Port LLC for damaging S-400 surface-to-air missiles during their transportation to China by sea, the Rosoboronexport press office told TASS on Thursday.

The details of the case file are available on the Moscow Arbitration Tribunal’s website, Rosoboronexport said.

The S-400 missiles destined for China were damaged in a storm during their transportation by sea. A regiment set of S-400 air defense missile systems was loaded onto three ships, one of which, as Russia’s Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation reported in January 2018, was hit by a severe storm in the English Channel and was forced to return to the port of departure.

The storm damaged auxiliary equipment aboard the ship. Head of Russia’s State Hi-Tech Corporation Rostec Sergei Chemezov said on February 18, 2019 that the damaged missiles had to be destroyed: instead of them, a new batch of missiles will be manufactured and delivered to the customer.

"The lawsuit has been filed and the documents have been submitted a year after the incident [the damage of S-400 missiles during the storm]," the company said.

The Rosoboronexport press office declined to disclose the details of the case file and said that all the open information was available on the website of the Moscow Arbitration Tribunal.

The Moscow Arbitration Tribunal earlier reported on its website it had registered two lawsuits filed by Rosoboronexport against Baltic Trans-Port LLC. The case file indicates sums in US dollars and euros for recovery.

"Judge Yu. Yu. Lakoba examined the issue of initiating judicial proceedings on the lawsuit filed by Rosoboronexport versus Baltic Trans-Port LLC on recovering losses in the amount of $161,482,640 and 1.79 million euros," the document says.

The case file also notes that Rosoboronexport has requested that the judicial proceedings should be held behind closed doors "to keep commercial, business and other secrets protected by law."