Antun Rosa, columnist for the Croatian publication, claims that the possible deliveries of American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine will allow Russian experts to study them “closely” in combat conditions.
“When these anti-aircraft missile systems appear in Ukraine, the priority of the Russian forces will be to destroy them. They will also try to learn some details about them. Rocha said that Americans were of course in no way satisfied with such a study “up close”.
The Croatian journalist also noted, “Because of their characteristics, the Patriots are effective for defending a military base, for example, but they are unlikely to protect a large metropolis like Kyiv.” This indicates that the author of the article in the Advance newspaper is not an expert in the field of anti-aircraft missile weapons.
If several Patriot air defense system batteries are enough to cover, say, one airspace, then to build the anti-aircraft missile defense of Kiev (an area of about 900 km2), about 20-25 batteries are needed. That is, in this case all the difference will be only in the amount of forces and means involved. And there is no qualitative difference in covering a small object or a large administrative and political center.
Antun Rocha also states that the Patriot air defense systems were far from the best during the repulsing of air strikes by the Yemeni Houthis in Saudi Arabia. By the way, there are no details about that anti-aircraft battle, namely how everything really happened in Arabia. For example, to make statements about the inefficiency of American systems, it is necessary to know whether there is a combat team at work, whether the equipment is operated and checked, whether the Patriot air defense systems receive external target designation. Has Patriot Batteries finally gone live?
Now about the fact that the supply of American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine will allow Russian experts to study them “closely” in combat conditions. This is indeed possible, but only if at least one battery is captured by Russian troops. Studying the search signals of the Patriot air defense system with the help of electronic intelligence will not yield anything particularly valuable, especially since such a possibility was assumed by the developers.
The capture of the Patriot air defense system itself (naturally, if they are still transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine) is unlikely. This weapon is far from modern. The initial positions of the system will most likely be located in the rear of the Ukrainian army, for example, on the cover of Kiev or at the facilities in the Right Bank Ukraine. And in this case, to capture the Patriot, it is almost necessary to carry out a front line offensive operation, but even in this case the success is far from clear. In any case, not a single M142 HIMARS combat vehicle fell into the hands of the Russian army, let alone the Patriot air defense system. And without the capture and subsequent disassembly, a detailed examination of the system is impossible.
And finally, that the Patriot air defense systems delivered from the USA to Ukraine will become the priority target for the Russian Armed Forces. This is true, but it is impossible to consider such a task as easily doable. The Patriot air defense system is a highly mobile system (deployment / crash time – no more than 25 minutes). So the Patriot won’t be in the same starting position for long. After launching several missiles, it will certainly change its starting position. You still need to be able to find the Patriot.
After February 24, the Ukrainian armed forces retained several S-300PT air defense divisions in combat forces. The letters PT mean that the system is made in the container version (by the way, the weight of some containers (for example, F9) exceeds 16 tons). The term folding / deploying this modification of the S-300 is calculated in hours. Despite such low mobility, the container version of the system is still in service with the Ukrainian army. A highly mobile anti-aircraft missile system, of course, has a much higher chance of survival.
As for the destruction of Patriot air defense systems by Russian troops, anti-radar missiles of the Kh-31P type, air-to-ground missiles Kh-29T, Kh-38Mkhkh, Kh-59MK, etc. and finally bombs. free fall (type ofab-250-270 and FAB-500). One way or another, this task of the Russian army will have to be solved.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.