The Ukrainian military released a new video on Sunday, stating that it shows the destruction
of a battery of Russian S-300 air defenses in Southern Ukraine.
The video was first shared by the Ukrainian military's Operational Command South formation
on its official Facebook page.
The video appears to show numerous burnt-out and smoking wreckages.
"While performing firing missions, our missile and artillery units destroyed a battery of
S-300 air defense systems near Zelenotropynske," the post stated.
While Russia has reportedly lost more than 65 surface-to-air missile systems, including
modern Pantsir-S1 and Buk-M2 since 24 February, it is the first confirmed loss of the S-300
family air defense system.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how Ukraine has managed to destroy the much-vaunted
S-300 system of Russia?
Let's get started
Zelenotropynske is located in Ukraine's Kherson Oblast, one of the southernmost regions in
the country.
The region is located just north of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine
in 2014.
It was also reported on Sunday by Euromaiden Press that seven "port and industry infrastructure"
targets had been struck by S-300 missiles near Mykolaiv, a port city located less than
200 km or 125 miles north of Zelenotropynske.
As per reports, 7 missiles were fired in Surface to Surface mode and they hit an infrastructure
facility, a gas station, a gas pipeline, and a warehouse.
It is unclear if the S-300 systems destroyed on Sunday were responsible for these strikes.
While Ukraine does possess Russian origin S-300 , the video depicts the destruction
of an R-149AKSh-1 command and signal vehicle which is only deployed by the Russian army
and makes it clear which side was operating the air defense system.
S-300 is a long-range Anti Access Area Denial system designed to protect against aerial
threats.
The surveillance radar of the S-300 can track objects over a range of 300 km or around 185
miles
The system has additional target acquisition radars and uses multiple missiles to cover
its strike envelope which includes Short-range 9M96E (40 km or 25 miles), Medium-range 9M96E2
(120 km or 75 miles ), and Long-range 48N6 (250 km or 155 miles )
Each S-300 consists of a number of transporter erector launchers (TELs) and each TEL has
4 launch tubes.
In a standard configuration, a single battery has 4 TELs, but there could be up to 16 TELs
per battery.
So, depending on the number of TELs commanded by the S-300 it can launch up to 16* 4 that
is 64 missiles simultaneously.
The system is thought to be able to resist Electronic Jamming attacks.
While it is designed primarily to take out a rival's aerial assets, its secondary land
attack capabilities have been used by Russian forces in Ukraine.
To know more about that check the video on the above card.
The pinpoint accuracy with which the strike seems to have been carried out and given the
fact that Russia is not expected to keep the system within the strike envelope of normal
artillery range points to the use of American-supplied HIMARS.
With the extended range guided rocket GMLRS or Guided MLRS, HIMARS can reach a land target
at a maximum range of 46 miles or 75 km.
GMLRS rockets have a reliability rating exceeding 98 % for a CEP of 10 m.
GMLRS can attack a wide range of targets.
The Guided MLRS Unitary round integrates a 200-pound unitary warhead, providing precision
strike for point targets.
Guided MLRS AW or Alternative Warhead round delivers a 200-pound class fragmenting warhead
that has 160,000 preformed tungsten fragments.
There are a few interesting observations
1.
S-300 complex is a mobile system so it can be moved from one place to another.
Even then, Ukraine has been able to pinpoint its exact location and carry out the strike.
It is clear that Ukraine has been one step ahead when it comes to the intelligence front
2.
S-300 is supposed to be protected by short-range air defense systems like Buk or Pansir or
Tor.
But it seem they were missing.
3.
The two S-300 launchers seem to have been parked next to each other.
This is a very bad mistake and unprofessional to say the least.
In 2018, Russia provided the advanced S-300 air defense system to Syria’s military free
of charge, transferring three battalions with eight launchers each to the Assad regime despite
strong objections from Israel and the US.
Russia’s delivery of the S-300 system to Syria followed the shooting down of a Russian
spy aircraft by Syrian forces that were responding to an Israeli strike over Syrian airspace.
Russia blamed Israel for the incident, which killed 15 Russian crew members.
Israel for years has lobbied Russia not to give Syria and other regional players the
S-300 system, arguing that it would limit Israel’s ability to neutralize threats,
including Hezbollah.
So, S-300 does possess a formidable reputation.
But this now lay in tatters.
Viewers may note that Ukraine doesn't possess stealthy jets like F-35, nor does it have
long-range precision strike weapons AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended
Range or AARGM-ER, but it has still managed to destroy the S-300 potentially making smart
use of HIMARS.
Moscow will have to come to grips with the fact that its top-of-line air defense systems
are vulnerable against donated Western missile systems, whose operators were hastily trained
in about 2 weeks.