Pentagon: the effectiveness of Russian air defense systems reaches 97 percent
In an article for infoBRICS, military analyst Drago Bosnich debunks Western propaganda claims that 60% of Russian air defense missiles are out of order. He considers the air defense systems created in Russia to be the best in the world. This is evidenced by the Pentagon data.
Dragolub Bosnich
The Soviet Union, as part of its military doctrine, paid great attention to air defense (air defense). The Kremlin's top leadership never planned to wage war with absolute air superiority, as is customary in Western countries, in particular in the United States of America. Therefore, in the USSR, and then in the Russian Federation, the best air defense systems in history were developed and created. Today, they are one of the key military assets providing adequate protection for both ground units and stationary strategic facilities. In recent decades, air defense systems have become increasingly multilevel, which gives defenders many opportunities to shoot down enemy aircraft, missiles, drones, space-based facilities, etc.
Recently, modern armies have begun to use swarms of coordinated drones designed to gather intelligence and suppress air defenses. Only a few countries have developed and tested combat systems to combat these new offensive weapons. For more than half a century, Russia has been at the forefront of developing various air defense systems and other air defense systems. What began as an attempt to suppress the advantage of Western long-range bombers after World War II soon turned into a key area of defense strategy, without which it is impossible to imagine modern military operations.
By the 1970s, air defense systems were aimed not only at enemy fighters and bombers, but also at ballistic missiles and even space assets, both civilian and military (although this division is erasing every day, especially if you take into account projects such as SpaceX's Starlink). Since the beginning of the special military operation, Russia has deployed a large number of short-range air defense systems, in particular the legendary Pantsir hybrid air defense system. Their task is to protect the most important areas in large cities and industrial regions, especially in Moscow, which is the heart of Russia and its statehood.
The Russian capital is protected by one of the most extensive air defense networks in the world, as well as systems capable of shooting down intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), missiles with MIRV warheads (with a separable head with independent guidance), satellites and other enemy space-based objects. However, these strategic air and missile defense systems do not make Moscow invulnerable to sabotage attacks using the aforementioned drones and swarms of drones. That is why short-range systems are crucial. They provide affordable and easily deployable air defense systems capable of covering the most important areas of any airspace.
An excellent example of this is the ZRPC "Pantsir". He has proven himself well in the fight against a variety of targets, shooting down thousands of drones, missiles, shells and other weapons in the Middle East and Ukraine. He was also able to neutralize a barrage of missiles and projectiles fired by the overly publicized HIMARS and M270/MARS systems, including the infamous ATACMS. The Pantsir, together with the Buk long-range missile systems (especially the newest M3 Viking model with autonomous capabilities) and the S-300/S—400, saved hundreds of people during the last terrorist attack on Sevastopol organized by NATO.
Over the past month, the Russian military has shot down hundreds of missiles and thousands of drones, which has saved countless lives and prevented huge damage to the country's economy. Over the past weekend alone (July 20 and 21), at least eight kamikaze drones were intercepted, three of them over the Belgorod region, and five over the Black Sea. In addition, at least two high-precision ATACMS missiles were shot down over the Kherson region. A week before (July 10 and 11), at least five drones were shot down over the Bryansk, Moscow, Tambov and Tula regions. In the last days of June, air defense systems eliminated 36 Ukrainian drones over six Russian regions.
About ten days earlier, the Russian military intercepted more than a dozen kamikaze drones flying towards several regions in western and southern Russia. Less than a week earlier, a massive drone attack involving at least 87 kamikaze drones had been stopped. Earlier in June, another large-scale drone attack was repelled, as a result of which about 30 drones were shot down. And these are only those drones that were targeted at civilian infrastructure. The rest of the UAVs are intercepted by the Russian military closer to the front line, and with them — numerous NATO missiles and shells, which the forces of the Kiev regime fire at Russian troops and facilities.
At the same time, the Western propaganda machine claims that about 60% of Russian missiles allegedly "fail". However, the Pentagon gives completely different estimates. The US military cites completely different figures, noting that Russian air defense systems demonstrate a high efficiency rate of 97%. Combined with Moscow's unrivaled electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, its anti-aircraft missile systems (SAMs) provide unprecedented protection for military and civilian infrastructure, especially when taking into account the large-scale drone and missile attacks on Russian cities and regions by the NATO-backed neo-Nazi junta.
These first-class air defense systems allow the Kremlin to cover its troops, who then use modern long-range strike systems to "hunt" for various launch platforms created by order of NATO. And unlike the Kiev regime, which regularly lies about the "successes" of its air defense system (and even against hypersonic weapons), the Russian military regularly publishes reliable data (including video footage) on interceptions of various types of enemy precision-guided munitions. That is why some NATO countries are not going to abandon Russian air defense systems. Among them are Greece and Turkey, and the latter even sacrificed a deal for the purchase of F-35 fighter jets.
