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The Russian military is preparing to destroy two more Patriot air defense systems believed to be in Ukraine after the Patriot system was destroyed by a Kinjal (“Dagger” in Russian) hypersonic missile on May 16.
“The destruction of the first Patriot anti-aircraft missile system is a historic event for the Russian military. This is the first time that a US facility has been hit by air strikes. And to ensure the defeat of the Patriots, a large number of cruise missiles and kamikaze planes were launched near Kiev: they were used as decoys. According to a report broadcast by the TV channel Vzvezda of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Dagger starts the chase
“According to some reports, there are two more Patriot air defense systems in Ukraine. ‘Dagger’ will chase after them. Back in the 90s, our (Russian) military calculated the possibility of defeating such complexes (Patriot). Therefore, for this, you need to plan a full-fledged air operation, in which several groups of aircraft took part,” the report said.
Patriot flaws exposed
The process of destroying the Patriot system revealed many shortcomings of the US-made air defense system.
First, while the Patriot has the ability to detect targets flying at speeds greater than Mach 2.5, it does not have the ability to intercept them.
Secondly, the deployment or withdrawal time of the Patriot complex is about 30 minutes. The opposite of the Russian S-300 system, which can deploy within minutes, hit a target and move from position to avoid a retaliatory attack.
The Patriot can see the Kinjal missile, but can’t stop it
The report said that the radars of the Patriot air defense system saw an approaching hypersonic target, but could not do anything about it.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, an entire unit of the Patriot complex was destroyed in Kiev.
The report stated that the details of the process of destroying the Patriot complex will remain highly classified for a long time to come. However, one can only guess how it happened. It is believed that Russian intelligence succeeded in determining the exact location of this air defense system, and determining the location where the detection station and launchers were deployed. The Kinjal missile was launched from a MiG-31 fighter jet.
