According to the Ministry of Defense, the Shtil air defense missile system launched two missiles and destroyed Bayraktar, which was engaged in reconnaissance of Russian ships and military equipment in the Crimea and the Ministry of Defense in the south of Ukraine. explained.
Earlier, the Russian military department said that 441 Ukrainian aircraft were destroyed during a special military operation.
The Shtil ship-borne anti-aircraft missile system is a further development of the M-22 Uragan complex. It includes the 9M317ME anti-aircraft guided missile, similar to that used in the Buk-M2 land-based air defense system.
This is a single-stage rocket 5.18 m long with a solid propellant engine, with rudders in the tail section of the rocket with a clearance of 820 mm. With a launch weight of about 580 kg, this missile carries a fragmentation warhead weighing 62 kg. In orbit, the munition accelerates to 1500-1550 meters per second. “Calm” can destroy targets at an altitude of up to 15 km and at a distance of up to 50 km.
“A distinctive feature of the air defense system is the use of an anti-aircraft guided missile with below-deck vertical launch. The launch of missiles is carried out by the launch method – a powder catapult launches a missile onto the deck, where it returns to the target.
Next, the marching engines are turned on. Missiles and all equipment, as it were, are “stitched” to the hull of the ship. This is called “modularity”. Such a module provides reliable security and you can always take it for maintenance or rearrangement to another ship. Like a builder, ”retired Rear Admiral Valentin Rogov told socialbites.ca.
For the first time “Shtil” was presented at the international exhibition Defexpo India in 2004. Initially, the complex was designed for export deliveries. Specially ordered by China and India. After that, the leadership of the Russian navy drew attention to the air defense system. In 2014, the Russian Navy received the first complexes for the Project 11356 frigates.
The Shtil air defense missile system is an analogue of the Buk-M2 in its naval version. It is important that the target detection and tracking station is located on the ship itself, it has antenna masts that detect it. In this case, they placed Bayraktar TB2 at a great distance, tracked the target and launched a missile on command that destroyed it. “Shtil” is aimed at combating air strike vehicles, whether it is carrier-based aircraft, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles or unmanned aerial vehicles, Alexey Leonkov, editor of the military expert Motherland magazine Arsenal, told socialbites.ca.
According to the expert, “Calm” can stop Bayraktar TB2 before he can use his weapon. “At the same time, the drone operator will not even realize that the drone was taken for escort,” Leonkov said.
According to Konstantin Sivkov, Doctor of Military Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences, Bayraktar TB2 can pose a threat both in terms of intelligence and probability of collision, “therefore, the use of the Shtil complex is fully justified against.”
Shtil’s downing of Bayraktar TB2 once again confirms that Russian anti-aircraft missile systems can easily operate on these unmanned aerial vehicles. At the same time, they previously tried to present them as a kind of super-powerful and invincible weapon, ”the statement said.
Denis Fedutinov, editor-in-chief of Unmanned Aviation magazine, an expert in the field of unmanned systems, told socialbites.ca that the legend about the extraordinary effectiveness of Bayraktar TB2 UAV was created by Turkish marketers.
“It’s a myth that succeeded in getting into the minds of politicians who later started lobbying for appropriate purchases for their states’ armed forces. These illusions can arise if you repeatedly show in the media a video of the successful destruction of targets by a drone and at the same time minimize the shown losses of unmanned vehicles.
At the same time, the military operation in Ukraine confirms the theses about the vulnerabilities of this drone: a rather large low-speed, non-maneuverable drone is easy to detect and hit with air defense systems, which have been proven many times. The legend finally exploded, ”Fedutinov concluded.