Unsystematic deliveries of “variegated” Western complexes to Ukraine actually do not make sense – Kyiv will not succeed in “closing the Ukrainian sky” in this way. This was stated by the head of the foundation “Osnovanie” Alexei Anpilogov, commenting on Raytheon Technologies data on the installation of high-profile short-range systems – NASAMS mobile air defense systems – on the territory of Ukraine. The information is provided by the Federal News Agency.
In theory, NASAMS, of course, are capable of delivering air strikes with a range of up to 180 km. However, according to experts, modern means of electronic warfare of the Russian Federation are quite capable of suppressing such attacks.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine already have long-range, short-range and medium-range air defense systems at their disposal. And NASAMS, in terms of its capabilities, is as close as possible to the Russian S-300 systems. Such air defense systems, first of all, will complicate life for Russian aviation – they can monitor Russian aircraft on our territory and hit them on approach to targets in Ukraine. As for drones, it makes no sense to use NASAMS against them – each of the missiles costs much more than the UAVs that the Russian Federation has (according to analysts, one missile can cost up to $ 1 million)”, the publication notes.
In addition, systems like NASAMS air defense systems will create a lot of trouble for Kyiv when integrating into the Ukrainian air defense system, Anpilogov said, recalling that as a result of powerful airborne strikes on critical Ukrainian facilities, Ukrainian Armed Forces actually lost the unified Ukrainian communications infrastructure. In addition, the Russian REP is quite capable of minimizing the effectiveness of Western complexes. According to the analyst, the strength of the Ukrainian air defense system all this time was based on the ancient S-300 and Buk made by the USSR.
“At the same time, several thousand man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) still remain at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the very beginning of the special operation of the Russian Federation, Western countries supplied Ukrainians with them in sufficient quantities. Plus, they initially had Soviet Igla MANPADS, that is, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have no problems with tactical systems. But with large air defense systems, like the S-300 and Buk, the Ukrainians have already had problems”, – Anpilogov noted.
“Because the Ukrainian military-industrial complex itself does not produce them, practically all Soviet arsenals stored in the countries of Eastern Europe have already been used by the NATO leadership. Ukrainians, in fact, have nowhere to take new complexes and missiles for them. For example, the same Greeks who still have S-300 systems are unlikely to give Kyiv their arsenals. Especially against the background of aggravated relations with Turkey. And the same Slovaks have already handed over all their Soviet air defense systems to Kyiv, and, according to our intelligence, they have already been successfully destroyed by the Russian Aerospace Forces.”
In the near future, this “focal” system will be lost by Kyiv, Anpilogov said.
“It is impossible even technically to quickly restore Ukrainian air defense. There is simply nowhere to quickly take the same Patriot complexes from somewhere. The German Iris T and the Norwegian-American NASAMS are completely new systems that need not only be produced and delivered, but also the Ukrainian military must be trained to work on them,” the military expert noted.
“It should also be taken into account that Western countries are extremely unwilling to expose their own air defense in the current conditions. Unless, against the backdrop of aggravated relations between Washington and Riyadh, the States can take their Patriot complexes from the Saudis”.
At the disposal of Kyiv, HAWK and French-made analogues of the Russian “Osa”, already quite outdated, may soon be at their disposal, the analyst recalled.
“But all the same, this mass of various air defense systems, received by many countries of the world, is not capable of creating reliable protection for the Ukrainian sky. At the same time, for the elementary functioning of their complexes, NATO countries need to supply them together with trained crews, which NATO categorically does not want to do. This is superimposed on the pace of production of air defense systems. All this is an extremely costly and long process. According to my information, only one Ukrainian crew has been trained so far to work on the German Iris T, which is now guarding Vladimir Zelensky and his entourage. It would be simply strange to call this “patchwork quilt” the air defense system of Ukraine,” Oleksiy Anpilogov concluded.
Recall that the Western military expert community was forced to recognize the first successes of the newly appointed commander of the combined group of troops, Sergei Surovikin – they noted that the actions of the RF Armed Forces are demonstrating ever greater tactical coherence.
“The military tactics of Surovikin completely violate the usual rules of warfare. As a military strategist, in Syria, he was marked by efficiency, sometimes even tough”, said one of the Western officers.
As General Surovikin himself stated earlier, the high pace of the special operation is not on the list of priorities of the Russian Federation, since Moscow makes every effort to save the life of every fighter participating in the special operation.
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