The President of Russia noted the highest efficiency of the Russian air defense system. As Vladimir Putin said, "about 95% of the enemy's missiles and projectiles are destroyed by our air defense systems." How did you manage to achieve such a result, which systems show the greatest efficiency and what will the Russian air defense of the future look like?
The Russian air defense had to fight a huge number of different aerial targets during the special operation. On the Ukrainian side, all modern strike means were used: combat aircraft and helicopters, ballistic and cruise missiles, multiple launch rocket systems and small-diameter planning bombs created on their basis, planning aerial bombs and, finally, a huge number of drones of various types.
In fact, the entire available "air offensive" potential of the Western bloc was used against the Russian air defense system. However, Russian anti-aircraft missile systems and the air defense system as a whole stood in the way of this strike weapon.
The current results of the activities of the air Defense of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were summed up by the Supreme Commander. "About 95% of the enemy's missiles and projectiles are destroyed by our air defense systems," Vladimir Putin said . The total number of enemy targets destroyed is also impressive. According to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov, in 2023 alone, Russian air defense systems destroyed over 6.3 thousand enemy air targets, including more than 4.6 thousand UAVs and more than 100 guided aircraft missiles Scalp / Storm Shadow. In addition, 90 HARM anti-radar missiles and 30 Tochka-U tactical missiles were destroyed, as well as more than 1,400 multiple rocket launchers (MLRS).
The Soviet Foundation
The high efficiency of the Russian air defense arose as a result of the consistent development of the Soviet and then the Russian military school. Due to the defensive doctrine of our country, air defense systems have always been given priority.
The country has been preparing for decades to repel a massive strike by strategic bombers and cruise missiles.
At the same time, the Soviet approach has always relied on ground-based air defense systems, unlike Western military doctrines, which considered front-line fighter aircraft as the main component of air defense.
The Soviet air Defense school rightfully has something to be proud of. Here is the first effective interception of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft (S-75 SAM, U-2 aircraft shot down, May 1960), and the first mass use of MANPADS during combat operations ("Strela-2", the Arab-Israeli "war of attrition", 1969). Soviet air defense systems remained the most powerful and advanced in the world throughout the Cold War – from 1945 to 1991. It is the potential of air defense systems inherited from the USSR that still plays, including on the side of Ukraine.
Exercises and modernization
Past experience and theory need constant reinforcement by current practice. Large-scale exercises were repeatedly held in the air defense forces, during which the reflection of massive strikes of different types of targets was practiced. This is exactly what the combat crews had to face during the special operation in Ukraine.
In particular, during such exercises, the practice of firing the S-300V "Antey" and S-300 "Favorit" complexes at supersonic targets was practiced, and the S-400 "Triumph" complexes at hypersonic targets . Despite the apparent redundancy of such exercises (Ukraine did not have and does not have hypersonic weapons), they played an extremely important role. It was all the easier for combat crews to subsequently work when intercepting Ukrainian Tochka-U and Grom operational tactical missiles, as well as American ATACMS, which in the final section of the trajectory move at speeds exceeding three speeds of sound (more than 1000 m/s).
In recent years, the S-300 and S-400 have been significantly upgraded and after such modernization were sent to the troops . Then, during the Ukrainian special operation, they proved themselves excellent in the case of intercepting low–flying high-speed low-visibility targets, such as the cruise missiles of the Scalp/Storm Shadow family. Attempts by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to break through the defense of the Crimean Peninsula with these missiles were not crowned with significant success – hits on targets on the peninsula were isolated. The Crimean bridge was also covered by Russian air defense systems.
The Buk anti-aircraft cannon and missile system was also upgraded . As a result, he was able almost immediately, back in the summer of 2022, to ensure high efficiency of intercepting shells of American MLRS M142 HIMARS / M270 MRLS. But the AFU and their Western curators considered HIMARS to be a weapon capable of dramatically changing the balance of power on the battlefield and providing a decisive advantage for Ukraine.
The test by Syria
Another factor that ensured the superiority of the Russian air defense system over Ukrainian percussion instruments was the combat experience accumulated by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation after 1991. In this sense, the Syrian campaign, which started in 2015, turned out to be a turning point.
The relatively small-scale Syrian conflict has allowed Russia to seriously prepare for more intense fighting. "Where else can I check the weapons? In the war. No matter how much we want, but state tests, military tests, army tests are all good, of course. But the main assessment is still put in the test there," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in this regard.
It was Syria that for the first time set the task for the Russian air defense forces to combat new type of air targets, for which traditional anti-aircraft missile systems were not originally designed.
We are talking about drones, MLRS projectiles and targets similar to them in the category of planning aerial bombs (for example, the French AASM Hammer family) and small-diameter land-based planning bombs (GLSDB) launched from MLRS systems. These weapons turned out to be one of the most difficult challenges for the Russian air defense.
A particularly significant school in this sense was the regular repulse of drone attacks on the Russian Khmeimim airbase – this is exactly what, only on a much more serious scale, Russian troops had to face later, during the Ukrainian special operation. The anti-aircraft complexes Tor-M2 and especially Pantsir-S showed high performance in the fight against drones. According to the results of the Syrian campaign, this air defense system has also been significantly upgraded, primarily in order to combat drones.
The Future of Russian air defense
Today, the anti-aircraft missile and cannon equipment of the Russian air defense forces fully meets the tactical and technical requirements laid down in it. Combat crews have gained such tremendous combat experience that it would be impossible to acquire with the help of exercises of any intensity.
Nevertheless, the battlefield continues to change. An increasing part of the aerial targets are small tactical FPV-class drones, for which even the Pantsir-S air defense system looks redundant.
Percussion instruments, on the one hand, are decreasing, but, on the other hand, their number is increasing. Swarms of drones, kamikaze drones and whole classes of other similar machines are appearing. This means that new air defense systems, which are being developed by the Russian military-industrial complex, are beginning to take the first roles.
Special electronic warfare equipment, anti-drone rifles and a number of other short-range systems are becoming the main means of air defense this year. Specialized domestic means of destroying autonomous kamikaze drones operating as part of a swarm without external control have already been presented . Russian design and military thought focuses on the creation and application of air defense systems of the "leading edge". They must economically and technically effectively combat tactical drones – and continue the Russian tradition of the world's best air defense systems.
Alexey Anpilogov