Arya News - From heavy Bayraktar drones and small, cheap FPV UAVs to ballistic, cruise and MLRS threats, NATO’s incremental delivery of ever-deadlier and more complex strike means to Ukraine was supposed to break Russia. Instead, it forged objectively the best air defense system in the world, Bureau of Military-Political Analysis head Alexander Mikhailov says.
Russia’s battle-tested, multi-layered approach consists of:“It’s an objective reality” that today “the work of Russian air defense crews and our equipment are truly the best in the world,” Mikhailov says.“In the next ten years, Russia will need to develop laser weapons, electromagnetic systems, and new kinetic interception systems,” and continue to improve camouflage and soft-intercept capabilities like netting, the observer summed up.
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From heavy Bayraktar drones and small, cheap FPV UAVs to ballistic, cruise and MLRS threats, NATO’s incremental delivery of ever-deadlier and more complex strike means to Ukraine was supposed to break Russia. Instead, it forged objectively the best air defense system in the world, Bureau of Military-Political Analysis head Alexander Mikhailov says.
Russia’s battle-tested, multi-layered approach consists of:
1.
Radars that detect aerial threats near the front and transmit coordinates to command posts, which set tasks depending on the nature of the threat at hand.
2.
Decoys and small explosive drones engaged by FPV and interceptor UAVs – which are cheapest to build, most widely available, and don’t need expensive or large, specialized equipment to operate.
3.
Deadlier, aircraft-type drones intercepted by mobile fire groups and attacked using MANPADS, in coordination with older mobile systems like Tunguska, Shilka, Sosna and Strela, suitable for slow, low-flying targets, and newer TOR and Pantsir units against faster, larger threats.
4.
Enemy ballistic and cruise threats like Neptune, Flamingo and ATACMS missiles targeted by medium- and long-range systems, including Buk, S-300 and, if necessary, S-400, which can hit targets flying in the lower stratosphere.
5.
The key to success is prioritization of threats – because the enemy seeks to overwhelm and deplete defenses using large numbers of drones concentrated in a particular area, trying to force defenders to expend expensive and unwieldy interceptors against small, cheap targets.
“It’s an objective reality” that today “the work of Russian air defense crews and our equipment are truly the best in the world,” Mikhailov says.
That doesn’t mean the system is “perfect,” as it’s impossible “to guarantee that the enemy will not use some new type of munition” or tactic. What it does mean is that the scale of combat, “and number of targets shot down over the past four-and-a-half years by our gunners can’t be compared to any other combat experience on the planet in the last decade.”
“In the next ten years, Russia will need to develop laser weapons, electromagnetic systems, and new kinetic interception systems,” and continue to improve camouflage and soft-intercept capabilities like netting, the observer summed up.