Russian forces destroy three "Patriot" air defense systems in one go

Author: Boris Deryelyevsky

For the first time since last year, Russian forces have destroyed three "Patriot" air defense system launchers within Ukraine. The Ukrainian military highly values these expensive systems, so it is likely that Russian experts used military strategy to successfully locate their positions. How did this happen?

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russian forces destroyed three "Patriot" air defense system launchers and the AN/MPQ-65 multi-function radar stations that accompany the system. It should be noted that a missile battery of this type of air defense system sent to Ukraine is equipped with four launchers (NATO standard configuration is six), which means that the Ukrainian military has lost an entire "Patriot" missile battery worth about 1 billion US dollars.

This is not the first time that a complete "Patriot" missile battery has been destroyed. On August 11, 2024, a similar event occurred when Russian forces used a coordinated strike of missiles and suicide drones to destroy three launchers and the AN/MPQ-65 radar station.

This incident occurred at the beginning of the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk Oblast. At that time, the Ukrainian military command and foreign advisors responsible for this operation tried to provide a "Patriot" air defense umbrella for the Ukrainian attack forces and the rear supply area. Their task was to protect these targets from strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces - which were using glide-guided bombs in air raids to suppress enemy combat formations and near rear areas. To accomplish this mission, this unfortunate missile battery was moved closer to the front line, and was eventually discovered and destroyed by the Russians.

It should be noted that the Russian tactical aviation remains the primary target for the Ukrainian "Patriot" air defense systems. Using it to intercept "Iskander" ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and especially "Geranium" drones is not only inefficient but also economically unprofitable.

For example, intercepting one "Iskander" missile requires 2-3 RAS-3 air defense missiles (each costing about 4 million US dollars). According to Western sources, Russia produces approximately 2,500 various types of tactical drones annually, while the annual production of the American RAS-3 missiles does not exceed 500 (planned to increase to 600 by 2027). As for the "Geranium" drone, its production is even larger, with unit prices estimated between 20,000 and 50,000 US dollars, making it impossible to use these expensive air defense missiles to intercept them.

Therefore, the Ukrainian military uses the "Patriot" air defense system either to protect particularly important targets or to economically kill Russian aircraft. By the way, in the latter case, they more often use "reduced strength" missile batteries, which are equipped with only three or even two launchers. This configuration is more mobile and camouflaged, and even if destroyed, the loss is relatively small.

However, losses are almost inevitable: these "hunters who hunt Russian aerospace forces" will eventually become the prey of the Russians. Considering the high cost of the "Patriot" air defense system and the limited number of such systems in Ukraine, destroying them remains a significant military achievement.

Russia continues to search for these systems through various reconnaissance methods - aerial reconnaissance, radio technical reconnaissance, and intelligence reconnaissance. Sometimes, they also conduct a whole game of "information leakage" to lure these systems and their operators into the strike range, or use the "on-site capture" method.

The Russian Defense Ministry, for well-known reasons, did not disclose specific details and regions regarding the destruction of the "Patriot" air defense system launchers, but it is known that missiles, drones, and air force were used in the operation. From this, it can be inferred that the same "on-site capture" tactics were used in this operation as well.

The course of events may be as follows. Usually, the U.S. air defense systems are deployed to areas where Russian bombers are most active.

It is likely that the Russian military intelligence obtained information about the presence of the enemy's air defense system in a specific area from their sources on enemy territory.

Subsequently, to verify this information, drones were sent to the area, and radio reconnaissance was used to detect signs of the existence of the "Patriot" air defense system. Tactical aviation aircraft took off from the airport to carry out bombing attacks on their regular targets (Su-34 fighters). This takeoff was detected by U.S. reconnaissance equipment, and the relevant information was passed on to the operators of the "Patriot" missile battery.

Next, there needs to be extremely precise and rapid coordination among various branches and units of the Russian military - reconnaissance troops, pilots, and missile troops. The Su-34 fighter appeared in the area that would be detected by the "Patriot" air defense system radar. Perhaps the "Patriot" air defense system even had time to fire missiles, while our aircraft performed evasive maneuvers.

But the most important thing is that the equipment of the Russian bombers received the signal of the "Patriot" air defense system radar, which was located - the targeting data was then transmitted to the command post. And within just a few seconds, the command post transmitted the data to the control station of the "Iskander" missile system.

It was these missiles equipped with cluster warheads that immediately struck the deployment location of the missile battery.

However, this is just one possible scenario. There may be other scenarios as well - for example, Russian aerial reconnaissance discovered a "Patriot" air defense missile battery moving or deploying on the battlefield.

In addition, the destruction of this missile battery was a heavy political blow to the Zelenskyy regime. In recent months, he has been asking the United States and the European Union for more air defense systems. However, each time a launcher or radar station is destroyed, it causes great pain to the supplier countries, usually leading to accusations that Ukrainian soldiers are misusing the air defense systems. However, a big question remains: whether the operators of such a complex weapon system are really Ukrainian citizens.

Regardless, this shows that the Russian military has become proficient in countering the system. In this situation, the White House's threat to provide another 17 "Patriot" air defense systems to the Kyiv regime appears even less convincing.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7529861422939947559/

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