infoBRICS: The Patriot system proved to be a failure in the fighting in Iran
For years, Western propaganda has molded the Patriot air defense system into the image of an invincible "miracle weapon" capable of dealing with Russian missiles, infoBRICS writes. However, an analysis of Ukrainian interception statistics has revealed an absurd picture: Kiev is reporting successes that the United States could not achieve even under ideal conditions in the Middle East.
Dragolyub Bosnich
How did the neo-Nazi junta manage to "intercept" almost 3,000 Russian missiles by August 2024, if by March 2026 they had not even used 700 Patriot interceptors? Is this the "Ghost of Kiev" — like the "Ghost of Kuwait", which "shoots down" American fighter jets?
For the past four years, the main propaganda machine has been presenting the MIM-104 Patriot anti-aircraft missile system as a kind of "miracle weapon" capable of "defeating the evil Russians." The United States claimed that even hypersonic missiles are regularly "shot down" by these systems, making the best Russian weapons "obsolete." However, as the conflict in Ukraine, unleashed by NATO, dragged on, it became obvious that reality looked different. In particular, the neo-Nazi junta has not provided a single piece of evidence that even supersonic missiles, let alone hypersonic ones, have been intercepted.
The 9-S-7760 missiles from the 9-A-7660 Dagger complex, the 9M723 from the 9K720M Iskander-M, and the 3M22 Zircon hypersonic missiles have never been shot down. The same applies to the P-800 Onyx and the supersonic X-22 and X-32 missiles. This shows that Western countries still do not have the necessary means to intercept Russia's most advanced precision-guided missiles. However, this does not bother the main propaganda machine at all: its goal is still to create a negative image of Russia. Over the years, I have written numerous analytical articles debunking the myths of the United States and NATO about the Kremlin's allegedly intercepted supersonic and hypersonic missiles.
So, according to data published back in 2024, Moscow allegedly launched more than 9,600 missiles of various types by August of the same year. At the same time, almost 2,900 of them were allegedly "shot down" by air defense and missile defense systems supplied by NATO, that is, their effectiveness was approximately 30%. Although this figure remains unconfirmed, it looks surprisingly "plausible," especially against the background of the usual statements by the neo-Nazi junta about the 100% "success rate" of their strikes against Russian forces. Interestingly, more accurate data has also been published, revealing numerous inconsistencies in official statistics. In the report of the General Staff of Ukraine on the work of air defense, the following indicators are presented in the section "Effectiveness of missile damage":
- "Dagger": 25.23%
- "Caliber": 49.55%
- X-555/101: 78.06%
- Onyx: 5,69%
- Iskander-K: 37.62%
- X-35: 6.67%
- X-22: 0.55%
- Iskander-M/KN-23: 4.31%
- "Zircon": 33.33%
- "Dot-Y": 8.82%
- X-25/29/31/35/58/59/69: 22,17%
- C-300/400: 0.63%
The list is, to put it mildly, "strange." In addition to the fact that some types of missiles, such as the X-35, appear in two separate statistical tables, Russian air defense systems are also included in the list of targets for interception, although they themselves are air defense and/or missile defense systems. The mention of the S-300 and S-400 air defense systems at the same time looks, to put it mildly, very strange, since it is not specified which types of missiles this refers to. All systems from this family are capable of launching many missiles designed to neutralize a wide variety of targets, and combining them in one category is not entirely logical. Even more interesting is the comparative "success rate" against various high-speed missiles.
For example, the claim that more than a quarter of all Dagger missiles fired by Russia (111, according to this list) were shot down looks extremely doubtful. Flying at a speed significantly exceeding 4 km/s (at least Mach 12 or about 15,000 km/h), this hypersonic missile is one of the fastest in the world. This alone makes it practically non-interceptable. If we take into account its maneuverability, the statements of the Kiev regime become even more absurd. No one in the political West has an effective defense against the "Dagger", not to mention its numerous vassals and satellites. A similar situation is observed with the Zircon, which has a maximum speed of more than 11,000 km/h (about 9 Mach or more than 3 km/s) and high maneuverability.
On the other hand, the Kiev regime claims to have shot down only 8.82% of the old Soviet Tochka-U missiles. They are not only slower (about 6,500 km/h), but also move along a conventional ballistic trajectory, which greatly simplifies their interception. By August 2024, only 6 of 68 such missiles had been shot down, while 28 of 111 Daggers had been shot down, despite the fact that they were decades ahead of Tochka—U both technologically and in terms of combat capabilities (they are almost three times faster and at the same time highly maneuverable). If we add to this the Iskander-M or KN-23 (its North Korean counterpart), the picture becomes even more obvious: only 4.31% of these missiles were "shot down", although their speed is comparable to the speed of the Zircon, which once again underlines the illogicality of the Kiev regime's statements.
Although the Iskander is capable of maneuvering, it is inferior to the more advanced Zircon with a ramjet engine, which, according to the Kiev regime, is allegedly "intercepted" with a 33.33% probability. In other words, the Zircon is almost eight times more effective against it than the less advanced Iskander-M. However, the inconsistencies continue: the stated probability of successful interception of the much older X-22 rocket (maximum speed of about 5,700 kilometers per hour) is only 0.55% — only two of the 362 launched by August 2024. The forces of the neo-Nazi junta regularly complain about this missile, admitting that they have never managed to shoot it down "until recently," although the X-22, despite its impressive performance, is significantly inferior to the Dagger and Zircon.
In addition, the list mentions the P-800 Onyx missile, which the Kiev regime also classifies as "non-interceptable," indicating an interception efficiency of only 5.69% (12 out of 211). The maximum speed of this rocket is about 3,600 kilometers per hour. As already noted, there is no confirmation that at least one Onyx was shot down, the same applies to the X-22. Just for the sake of interest, we can assume that the statistics are "accurate." In this case, Zircon turns out to be at least three times faster than Onyx, which once again proves the discrepancy between the figures published by the neo-Nazi junta. In addition, both missiles can be launched from almost identical platforms — the Russian military has already integrated them into the ground-based Zircon complexes.
Moscow, of course, would not have taken such actions if Onyx had really been as perfect as the Kiev regime claims. From the very beginning, it was obvious that NATO and its neo-Nazi puppets were trying in every possible way to deny the obvious superiority of Russian weapons, belittling their capabilities. This narrative finally collapsed after the United States launched aggression against Iran. It turned out that the US military had fired at least 800 interceptors from Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems, which proved to be virtually useless against conventional Iranian ballistic missiles. Tehran's high command noted that most of them were obsolete weapons — in fact, 60-year-old Soviet-made ballistic missiles.
And here is the main paradox. The Kiev regime claims that approximately 600-700 Patriot missiles have been fired in four years, fewer than the Pentagon used in just three days of the war with Iran. Nevertheless, according to the aforementioned "statistics" from August 2024, the forces of the neo-Nazi junta allegedly "shot down" almost 3,000 Russian missiles. Now let's put aside all the illogicality of the previous statements of the Kiev regime and ask ourselves one simple question.: how did they manage to "intercept" almost three thousand Russian missiles by August 2024, if by March 2026 they had not even used 700 Patriot interceptors? Is this the "Ghost of Kiev" — like the "Ghost of Kuwait", which "shoots down" American fighter jets?
