S-300PMU SA-10 GRUMBLE
The S-300 is a Soviet-made medium-range anti-aircraft missile system. The system is quite widely used. In addition to the Russian aggressor, it is operated by three NATO countries: Bulgaria, Slovakia and Greece.
The development of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system began in the USSR in the late 1960s and 70s of the last century. He was supposed to replace the old S-75 complexes, and it was originally supposed to create a mobile system. The mobility of the ground complex is due to the need to avoid an enemy strike after detection.
In the 1970s, the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system used more than 20 missile variants. Now Russia uses 5V55K, 5V55R and 48N6 missiles with high-explosive fragmentation warheads weighing up to 144 kg. The S-300 is a very effective system, which is part of a wider complex, which includes, in addition to the launch vehicle, a long-range surveillance radar, command vehicles and an engagement radar. Elements of the system can be located at a distance of up to 40 km from each other.
The system is designed to combat aircraft of strategic and tactical aviation, cruise, operational-tactical and ballistic missiles at altitudes from 25 m to 27 km , and distances up to 100 km in conditions of intense radio countermeasures. The S-300 has a large number of modifications that differ in various missiles, radars, the ability to protect against electronic warfare, and a long range. They can also counteract small and medium-range ballistic missiles and targets flying at low altitudes.
Long-range radar can track objects up to 300 km away . Each battalion has six launchers with two missiles each. On command, the launchers open fire on the target. The S-300 is capable of conducting 12 targets simultaneously. In addition, the S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, combined into an air defense grouping, protect an area of tens of thousands of square kilometers from air attacks. The missile system can shoot down aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles at distances from 5 to 150 km . It does not matter at what height the target flies - 10 m or 25 km. In addition, the system is all-weather and can be operated in various climatic zones.
In April 2022, Slovakia handed over S-300 to Ukraine, replacing them with the US Patriot. "I would like to confirm that #Slovakia has provided Ukraine with an air-defence system S-300. Ukrainian nation is bravely defending its sovereign country and us too. It is our duty to help, not to stay put and be ignorant to the loss of human lives under Russia’s agression." Eduard Heger stated April 8, 2022. It should be noted that Slovakia transferred the S-300 system at the request of Ukraine in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter on the Right to Self-Defense.
Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nagy had previously said that Bratislava is ready to supply Ukraine with S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems if it gets a decent alternative. At the end of March 2023, the Patriot SAM was deployed in Slovakia.
Ukraine began negotiating with countries that are armed with S-300 air defense systems to replenish their missile reserves. This was announced 01 December 2022 by Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov during a briefing with Margarita Robles, Spanish Defense Minister, in Odesa, Ukraine.
“S-300, they work very well. The fact is that they were not made in Ukraine, that is, we do not have S-300 missiles, so we use stocks. Therefore, with colleagues-ministers of defense of countries in which there are also S-300 on armed, we are negotiating the possibility of replenishing this reserve of missiles from their warehouses and arsenals,” Oleksii Reznikov stated. Oleksii Reznikov also emphasized the need for maximum accumulation of defense forces of allied countries – both to help the Ukrainian army and to replenish their own arsenals.
He noted that Russia launched a war against civilians, attacking the infrastructure of Ukrainian cities. “They are now behaving <…> as a terrorist state… And this means that this is a challenge for the whole world. This means that the industry that produces weapons and ammunition in every civilized country in the world today should switch to those rails and replenish the armed forces of the national armies of the countries that help us, and be able to help further. Provide missiles, provide projectiles, and so on, and so on. Because the German IRIS-T or NASAMS systems are great – [but] they need missiles. Every volley of Russian missiles – and we use air defense missiles,” Reznikov said.
In addition, NATO planned to invest in Soviet-era weapons systems used in Ukraine. Investments in enterprises in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria are being discussed to resume the production of Soviet-era shells for the Ukrainian artillery arsenal.
The Russian occupying forces had begun to use S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems more often for strikes on the territory of Ukraine due to the reduction of their ballistic missile stocks. This was announced 16 January 2023 during an online briefing by the spokesman of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yuriy Ignat. He confirmed that the enemy is increasingly hitting ground targets with S-300 missiles, as well as, probably, S-400. These missiles are designed “for anti-aircraft duels”: shooting down planes, helicopters, cruise missiles and drones.
"They are using them more and more often from Kharkiv all the way to the Mykolaiv region, and we see that they were hitting Kyiv. This shows that they have little ballistics. They have less than a hundred Iskanders left, according to the Main Directorate of Intelligence," Ignat emphasized. He added that the aggressor still has many S-300 missiles, and therefore tries to use them in conditions of shortage of missiles of other types. "They are the manufacturers of these missiles. There are still a lot of them in warehouses," Ignat said.
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