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One of Ukraine’s few remaining Soviet-made S-300PS long-range air defense systems had been targeted, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on July 16.
In a statement, the ministry said that the system was targeted with an Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile close to the settlement of Gvardeyskoye in the Odessa region. The strike destroyed two transporter erector launchers, of the 5P85D or the 5P85S type, a fire control radar, likely a 5N63S, in addition to a 5I57A power generator and an unidentified vehicle, according to footage released by the Ministry.
The Iskander-M is said to have a range of nearly 500 kilometers. The highly-maneuverable missile can be armed with different conventional warheads. The missile is guided by a GLONASS-aided inertial navigation system. It can be also equipped with an optical seeker with a digitized scene-mapping area correlator system for terminal guidance.
Around 100 S-300P, S-300PT, S-300PS and S-300V1 batteries were in service with Kiev forces prior to the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine more than three years ago. The country received a single S-300PMU battery from Slovakia in the very first few months of the operation.
Most of these S-300 systems have been already destroyed, damaged or captured by the Russian military. Due to these losses, Ukraine’s long-range air defense capabilities deteriorated in a very serious way.
Western attempts to make up for these heavy losses by supplying Ukraine with United States-made MIM-104 Patriot long-range air defense systems have so far fallen short, both in terms of the performance of the system or the number of batteries supplied.
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