The United States continues to deny the destruction of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system in Ukraine – moreover, it is claimed that its "minor damage" has been eliminated and the complex is back in service. Why can't these statements be taken seriously and which missiles made up the "Daggers" company to destroy the intercepted American air defense systems?Since its debut in Operation Desert Storm (1991), the American Patriot air defense system has never shown itself to be a reliable defensive system.
But in terms of publicity, it is not inferior to any other in the world.
Why do the Americans claim that the complex was damaged by the results of the strike, but not destroyed? PATRIOT PAC3 is the pride of the American military–industrial complex, an image product. Americans cannot admit his loss publicly. Therefore, all the Western media, at the suggestion of the Pentagon, talk about its "damage" – but not about the destruction of this SAM. "The damage to the Patriot air defense system after the Russian missile attack near Kiev on Tuesday morning is minimal," CNN refers to reports from its official sources in the American authorities.
How Americans lieThere are important details in the reports of the American media and officials.
In particular, the battery of the Patriot complex includes many elements. Some of them really survived the impact. This is what formally allows the Americans to claim that the complex was "damaged", but not "destroyed".
Here is the composition of the equipment of one SAM (what is in service with the battery). The combat work of the air defense system involves: a command post; radar; from four to eight launchers, from two to four relay stations, two or three diesel power plants, transport-charging vehicles, a tractor and several other pieces of equipment. And of course, the complex has at its disposal anti-aircraft guided missiles (SAM), from four to 16 on each launcher. This is a really big farm.
The elements of the complex in the position are not close to each other. Usually the command post and the radar station stand side by side, and the launchers can be tens or even hundreds of meters apart. One launcher can be completely carried out in a missile-dangerous direction 20 km ahead.
Therefore, yes – it will not be possible to cover the entire complex with one missile in conventional equipment. It is possible to destroy seven of the eight launchers, half of the radio relays and diesel power plants, but the complex will retain the ability to launch missiles at targets. But without a radar or a command post, the SAM does not work. The rockets simply will not receive the "Launch" command.
But it was the damage to the multifunctional radar – a key element of the complex – that was reported by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. "According to reliably confirmed data, on May 16 of this year, as a result of a strike by the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system in the city of Kiev, a multifunctional radar station, as well as five launchers of the Patriot anti–aircraft missile system manufactured by the United States, were hit and completely destroyed," he said in a statement. There is no reason not to believe it.
How can one or two missiles destroy so much equipment? There is a lot of speculation on the Web that the X-47M2 Dagger missile has a penetrating warhead and explodes at a great depth in the ground. This is true. But for some reason, no one mentions that there is also a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing 480 kg. At a relatively high altitude – about two kilometers – it emits an unvoiced number of submunitions. Their explosion (presumably) at a height of about 50 m leads to the destruction of a huge area by fragments. There is no doubt that such a combat unit was used in this case against the Patriots.
There is another important indirect circumstance. There are still no photos of damage to the complex, satellite images of craters in positions and similar information anywhere. With modern information openness, even in the conditions of Ukrainian military censorship, this is very significant. It is clear that any photo will show that the remains of the Patriot complex were in fact not repairable. If the radar was slightly damaged (and this is the maximum hit of several fragments), it could really be repaired. And to demonstrate–to prove that there was no hit – a photograph of the surviving Patriot. But there's really nothing to show.
The United States officially recognizes participation in the renovation of the complex. "The Patriot air defense system, damaged in Ukraine, is functioning again," a Pentagon spokesman says. According to her, the United States provided Ukraine with "some assistance" in repairing the complex.
Yes, the United States can indeed provide such assistance through its NATO partners. Deliver SAM elements from Poland or Germany. And it is quite possible to call the replacement of SAM modules a repair. And the whole radar and launchers can be considered a module. The connection between all the elements of the SAM is digital, no analog settings need to be made, so it will not be very difficult to dock the new radar with the gearbox and launchers. You can secretly bring a new radar station to Kiev and put it in place of the old one. Why not repair?
But all this does not negate the fact that in reality the Patriot was destroyed. It should have been so – after all, the ballistic target (Dagger missiles) is very difficult for Patriots. First of all, because of the extremely high speed of the attacking warhead (missile). To facilitate the detection of such targets, the Patriot air defense system uses satellite targeting. In fact, without it, it can hit such targets only with a very small probability due to their late detection.
Speed first of allThe enormous speed of a ballistic target is a moment of principle.
When the Patriot air defense system was just being developed, requirements were put forward for it – to hit tactical ballistic missiles with launch ranges of 100-160 km. Such rockets have maximum speeds of about 1000 m/s. It is this figure that is present in his TTX.
But both the Dagger missile, the Iskander ballistic missile, and the Russian X-22 and X-32 air-launched cruise missiles have much higher speeds. Much higher than the speed limit of the affected targets, for which the Patriot is designed.
Due to such a high speed, the area of destruction of the Patriot air defense system for ballistic targets available to it is much less than 160 km. In fact, at a BC speed of about 1000 m / s, it will be no more than 15-20 km in range, but at the same time it will also be severely limited by the course parameter – the minimum distance from the launch point of the missile defense system to the target course.
In addition, a single Patriot air defense system is defenseless against vertically attacking warheads or missiles due to its technical features (for example, the angle of the radar scanning sector in the vertical plane is 70 degrees).
The highest skillSo, what really happened in Kiev?
How was the Patriot air defense system destroyed? Apparently, the "Dagger" did not work alone. He was accompanied by another high-speed rocket. And this is not a "Caliber".
If you carefully watch the shooting video, you will notice that the trajectories of the missiles fired by the SAM first went at smaller angles to the horizon, then became steeper. This suggests that the shooting was conducted at a target that was horizontal (or almost horizontal) and at a high altitude.
But, as already mentioned, the X-47M2 "Dagger" missile attacks the target almost vertically – 80-90 degrees. So the Patriot was firing at other missiles. In addition, if the shooting was carried out on "Daggers" (and there were six of them at once, according to the statements of Ukrainian propagandists), then the first anti-missiles would go steeply into the sky, and each next with an ever smaller angle. Because the line of sight of the target would be lowered. On the video, everything happens the other way around.
Maybe it was "Geraniums" or "Calibers"? These are low-altitude goals. After the launch, the missiles would have to make a "slide" and dive down. We also don't see this in this video.
In other words, the Patriot SAM was firing at something else. And this other could be an X-22 missile with an anti-radar guidance system. Then it all fits together. Such a rocket flies up at an altitude of 22 km – and its line of sight from the SAM rises all the time. We see that at the beginning of the shooting the trajectories are relatively low, then everything is higher. At the end of the trajectory, the X-22 falls on the target at an angle of 30 degrees.
Thus, Russia attacked the Patriot air defense system with X-22 missiles with an anti-radar homing head. But not only by them – it was a complex work. The Dagger missiles reached the target 30-40 seconds later and completed the rout. Moreover, their exit to the target was coordinated amazingly accurately. The Russian military showed the highest skill and a brilliant operation.
Igor Galaburda
