Mikhail Khodarenok - how Russia will resist the Patriot air defense system in Ukraine Russian specialists will be able to capture and study Patriot air defense systems if they are delivered to Ukraine, the Croatian newspaper Advance writes.
Military observer of the Newspaper.En" Mikhail Khodarenok tells what the Croatian edition is wrong about.
Antun Rocha, a columnist for the Croatian edition, claims that possible deliveries of American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine will allow Russian specialists to study them "up close" in combat conditions.
"As soon as these anti-aircraft missile systems appear in Ukraine, the priority for the Russian forces will be their destruction. In addition, they will try to find out some details about them. Americans, of course, are not satisfied with such a close-up study in any way," Rocha said.
The Croatian journalist also noted that "due to their specifics, Patriot are effective for the defense of, for example, one military base, but they are unlikely to be able to cover such a large metropolis as Kiev." This suggests that the author of the material in the Advance newspaper is not an expert in the field of anti-aircraft missile weapons.
If several Patriot air defense systems batteries are quite enough to cover, say, an airfield, then about 20-25 batteries are needed to build an anti-aircraft missile defense of Kiev (an area of approximately 900 square kilometers). That is, the whole difference in this case will be only in the amount of forces and means involved. And there is no qualitative difference in the cover of a small object or a large administrative and political center.
Antun Rocha also mentions that in Saudi Arabia, during the repulse of air attacks by Yemeni Houthis, Patriot air defense systems did not show themselves from the best side. Meanwhile, there are no details about that anti-aircraft battle, that is, how things really were there in Arabia. For example, for statements about the inefficiency of American systems, it is necessary to know whether the combat crew was in the workplace, whether the equipment was turned on and checked for functioning, whether the Patriot air defense systems received external targeting. Finally, did Patriot batteries go on the air.
Now about the fact that the supply of American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine will allow Russian specialists to study them "up close" in combat conditions. This is indeed possible, but only if Russian troops capture at least one battery. Studying the probing signals of the Patriot air defense system with the help of electronic intelligence means will not give anything particularly valuable, since such an opportunity was originally intended by the developers.
The capture of the Patriot air defense system itself (of course, if they are still transferred to the APU) is very unlikely. This weapon is far from the cutting edge. The starting positions of the system will probably be located in the deep rear of the Ukrainian army, for example, on the cover of Kiev or objects on the Right Bank of Ukraine. And in order to capture Patriot in this case, it is necessary to conduct almost a front-line offensive operation, but even in this case, success is far from obvious. In any case, not a single M142 HIMARS combat vehicle has yet fallen into the hands of the Russian military, what can we say about the Patriot air defense system. And without capture and subsequent disassembly, no detailed study of the system is possible.
And, finally, that the Patriot air defense systems delivered to Ukraine from the United States will become a priority target for the Russian Armed Forces. This is true, but it is impossible to consider such a task easily feasible. Patriot air defense system is a highly mobile system (deployment/ folding time - no more than 25 minutes). That is, Patriot will not be in the same starting position for a long time. After several launches of the missiles, he will definitely change the starting position. You still need to be able to find Patriot.
After February 24, the Armed forces of Ukraine retained several divisions of the S-300PT air defense system in their combat composition. The letters PT mean that the system is made in a container version (by the way, the weight of some containers (for example, F9) exceeds 16 tons). The term of folding / deployment of this modification of the S-300 is calculated in hours. Despite such low mobility, the container version of the system in the Ukrainian army is still in service. A highly mobile anti-aircraft missile system has a much higher chance of survival, of course.
As for the destruction of the Patriot air defense system by Russian troops, anti-radar missiles of the X-31P type, guided air-to-ground missiles of the X-29T, X-38Mxx, X-59MK, etc., and finally, free-fall bombs (OFAB-250-270 and FAB-500). A similar task of the Russian army will have to be solved one way or another.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editorial board.Mikhail Khodarenok
