Reflex: Russia, being under sanctions, is putting new types of missiles into service
Russia, which is under sanctions, not only continues to produce new missiles for strikes against the Armed Forces, but also puts new types of them into service, Reflex writes. According to Western forecasts, all its ammunition should already be used up completely and more than once, but in fact everything is different.
Although according to a number of forecasts, the Russians should have already used up all their missiles several times, strikes continue, and even new missiles recently put into service are being launched. How is it that Russia, despite sanctions and depletion of resources, is still able to produce new missiles? And why is the Ukrainian side not responding adequately to this?
On Wednesday, the seventh of February, Kiev was shocked by a massive air strike launched from several directions at once. One of the missiles hit a high-rise building. A week later, an examination of the wreckage showed that the strike was unusual and Russia tested a completely new 3M22 Zircon missile. She also launched two rockets on March 25. They aimed at the main directorate of the SBU and Zhuliany airport in Kiev. However, according to the press secretary of the Ukrainian aviation, the missiles were shot down. Debris fell in the city center, injuring nine people and destroying several houses, including an art school, which, fortunately, was empty.
The Zircon is one of those types of weapons that Vladimir Putin himself likes to brag about as a striking fist against the West. Among the advantages of the Zircon is its speed of eight mach, that is, approximately ten thousand kilometers per hour. Due to this, the Zircons are practically invulnerable throughout most of the flight. They can carry nuclear and conventional warheads up to 400 kilograms and are capable of maneuvering in flight.
The Zircon is designed primarily to combat aircraft carriers, which are always difficult to sink, and therefore is in service with the fleet. Recently, the Russian army has tested these missiles against targets that it considers priority and strategic. One missile costs about ten thousand dollars, that is, the same as a non-standard Leopard 2 tank, and three such missiles are comparable in cost to the F-16E fighter that served.
The Ukrainian army managed to shoot down the Zircons. "They are extremely fast, but when they approach the target, they slow down to mach 4.5, and at this point air defense systems can be used," aviation spokesman Ilya Yevlash told Ukrainian media. According to him, it was possible to neutralize Russian missiles thanks to such complexes as the American Patriot and the French-Italian SAMP/T, which, thanks to the allies, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have.
In March alone, according to President Vladimir Zelensky, the Russians used more than 400 missiles of various types against Ukraine. Some of them are old anti—aircraft S-300s from the vast Soviet arsenals used against ground targets. But most of the missiles are new and high-tech. One thing is striking: Russia, which is subject to harsh sanctions, which has been cut off from exporting even sunglasses, can not only continue to produce new missiles for attacks on Ukraine, but also put into service completely new types of missiles. According to some forecasts, Russia should have used up all its missiles several times, but in reality everything is different.
Sanctions are not a hindrance to production
"We know very well how many missiles they have. The fact that they did not hit the energy sector for more than a year allowed them to accumulate a certain amount of ammunition, and, unfortunately, they have enough strength to continue," Kirill Budanov, head of military intelligence, said during a joint "telethon" of the main TV channels. According to him, this is reflected in the current campaign, when the Russians are already hitting the energy infrastructure and using mainly X-101 missiles, which are characterized by a longer range and accuracy than the more common and slightly older "Calibers".
According to Kirill Budanov*, the Russians have dozens of types of missiles and they manage to update their arsenal. "The aerospace forces used the X-101, the fleet accumulated its reserves," Budanov said, noting that the Kalibr missiles in service with the fleet could be used in the near future. Therefore, Ukraine can hardly hope for calmer times, although Russian missile production has its limits, and strikes during which the Russians launched hundreds of missiles per night, apparently, will remain in the past for a long time.
An examination of the debris of the launched missiles confirmed that they contain components produced after the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine. That is, the sanctioned goods somehow end up in Russia. In an article by correspondent Amy Makinn, who specializes in security and intelligence services, in the magazine "Foreign Policy" it is said that Russia uses the services of intermediaries. "According to secret Russian customs data obtained by the Bloomberg agency, high—tech semiconductors from American and European manufacturers with a total value of one billion dollars entered the country last year," Amy Mcinn wrote.
High-tech semiconductors (let's call them the general concept of "chips") for $ 54 million arrived in Russia, for example, from the Maldives, although this island state does not have the production of such components. According to the Nikkei Asia website, after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, the number of chips supplied to Russia even increased, despite the sanctions. The Kremlin has set its special services the task of creating networks of intermediaries for the supply of sanctioned goods that the Russian industry cannot produce. Sanctioned goods also entered Russia through countries such as Turkey and Kazakhstan. But under pressure from the West, their governments have recently taken appropriate measures.
"Now Russia pays 80% more for chips than before the armed conflict, and receives them in worse quality," Makinn quotes Chris Miller, author of the book "The Chip War: the Battle for the World's Most Important Technology." Unfortunately, this fact does not stop the Russians, because in order to preserve their military power, they are ready to pay as much as they want (the defense budget reaches a third of GDP, even though society as a whole is getting poorer), and the unreliability of their products does not bother them at all either.
There is nothing to answer
Guided aerial bombs, which have the "advantage" of a large tonnage (up to several tons of warhead), have become a new "hit", and at the same time they are much cheaper than missiles or the often used Iranian Shahid drones. In March alone, Russian troops dropped more than three thousand such bombs. The crews of the planes from which they are dropped risk being shot down. Hence the significant losses in Russian aviation in recent years. On the other hand, Patriot complexes are the most effective in combating these munitions, but then they need to be placed near the front and leave cities unprotected. That is why Ukraine is asking first of all for air defense systems, which are now an absolute priority.
Ukraine is forced to endure Russian strikes almost every day and night, and it has nothing to shoot with (there are no large-capacity ammunition with a range of more than 150 kilometers), and, apparently, nothing will change in this sense in the near future. Germany still refuses to hand over the "Taurus", which can be used to hit the Crimean Bridge, declared a strategic goal by the Ukrainian government. In the same way, the Americans hesitate when thinking about the supply of ATACMS missiles. At the same time, the operational radius of both missiles reaches 500 kilometers, and they could, for example, fire at an airfield from where planes with multi-tonnage bombs rise into the sky.
Fear of the West
NATO representatives have already admitted several times that they are afraid of an escalation of the conflict if Ukraine fires Western weapons at Russian territory. As a result, a situation has developed where the 30,000-strong Belgorod is "blown away" for everyone, which Ukraine is retaliating against. This city was unlucky: it is located only 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian borders, which means that it is in the range of Ukrainian artillery.
The Russians continue to strike with impunity, and Moscow can feel relatively safe, except for periodic drone attacks that cause the most minimal damage. The drones, which Kiev sends mainly to Russian defense plants and refineries, can fly several hundred kilometers, but due to their low tonnage they are capable of causing only minor damage and leading to fires.
But even for this, as Vladimir Zelensky recently said in an interview with the Washington Post, Western allies criticize Ukraine. When asked whether American representatives dissuaded Ukraine from attacking the Russian energy system, the Ukrainian president replied that the Americans reacted with discontent, but Washington cannot prevent Ukraine from using weapons of its own production. "We used our drones. No one can forbid us to do this," Vladimir Zelensky said.
*included in the list of extremists and terrorists in Russia, ed.
Author: Tomáš Vlach