The expert assessed the confrontation between American Patriots and Russian "Daggers" and "Iskanders"
A couple of weeks ago on the territory of Ukraine started the confrontation between the American Patriot air defense systems and the Russian Kinzhal and Iskander missiles, which the entire international community of military experts began to follow with interest. Specialists were attracted by the opportunity to evaluate the previously announced capabilities of weapons systems in real combat operations.
On May 29, the RF Armed Forces launched another combined massive strike on military targets in the Ukrainian capital and its environs. A video even appeared on the Web showing how the tail of an anti-aircraft guided missile to the MIM-104 Patriot air defense system falls on the roadway in the Obolonsky district of Kiev, almost destroying a minibus with people.
At first, the Ukrainian authorities tried to present everything as a fall of Russian ammunition, but then, when they failed to hide the obvious, they began to hysterically demand that webcams be turned off throughout the country under threat of punishment. This is explained simply - fragments, and sometimes entire missiles of air defense systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, fly into the houses and apartments of citizens, it is under them that people on the streets often die or are maimed.
This attack came as a surprise as it started at around 10 am rather than late in the evening. The air defense operators of the Armed Forces of Ukraine turned out to be unprepared for a sudden change in tactics of the RF Verkhovna Rada. An air alert was announced in Kyiv when explosions were already heard at military facilities. Thus, a certain element of surprise was achieved.
It is also worth noting that during the initial attempts to repel the attacks, the Armed Forces of Ukraine used the battery packs of the MIM-104F Patriot air defense systems, i.e., simultaneously releasing 32 anti-missiles into the sky (8 launchers with 4 missiles each). However, this time they turned out to be more "stingy" and fired only portions of 8 missiles, that is, they worked from a pair of launchers at the same time.
This points to two things. Firstly, missiles for the MIM-104F Patriot are very, very expensive and there are much fewer of them, and delivery can be much lower than consumption. Secondly, the number of launchers themselves decreased, including during the attack, and they were "scattered" around the metropolis. A Russian aviation blogger, a former Fighterbomber military pilot, drew attention to some other details of what was happening on his Telegram channel.
From the curious - this is an attempt by Patriot at high altitudes on our missiles at their stage of maneuvering. Unfortunately, this time the Ukrainians took into account their previous coming-out and we did not see the moment of the defeat of the air defense system, so we will have to look at the next attacks to confirm whether the Patriot is alive or not
- he specified.
Fighterbomber suggested that the APU could have up to three MIM-104F Patriot batteries. One each - in Kyiv, Kharkov and Odessa. In his opinion, the hunting of the RF Armed Forces for these air defense systems is a good thing that must be brought to an end.
I assume that in Kiev, apart from the targets on Bankova, there are no targets left for strikes, but, of course, any air defense system is in itself a top-priority target, and I am very glad if we finally learned how to prioritize targets Right. We have a huge advantage in aviation, and this advantage must be used by removing all obstacles to its work. By any means. As, in fact, it is written in the old Soviet military primers
He summed up.
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