New drone footage fromnear the Ordzhonikidze settlement within the Dnepropetrovsk area has proven the destruction of a number of key elements of an MIM-104 Patriot lengthy vary surface-to-air missile system operated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, after it was efficiently focused by Russian forces utilizing the Iskander-M ballistic missile system. The strike came about roughly 100 kilometres behind the frontlines, at a time when Russian forces within the area have made vital advances. Commenting on the strike, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed that the Patriot system’s AN/MPQ-65 multifunctional radar station, the fight management cabin, and missile launch autos, have been all destroyed. The Iskander-M system was developed particularly to have the ability to evade detection or concentrating on by techniques such because the Patriot, with its 9K720 missiles utilizing semi-ballistic depressed trajectories, and with the ability to conduct intensive in flight manoeuvres all through their flight paths. The techniques have been used extensively to focus on Ukrainian air defence techniques prior to now.
Ukraine first obtained Patriot techniques delivered by Germany and the Netherlands in mid-April 2023, with additional models being delivered by america later that month. As Western arsenals have been more and more depleted, nevertheless, the flexibility to replenish Ukraine’s air defences has grow to be more and more strained. Patriot techniques are thought of probably the most excessive worth items of navy {hardware} operated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which makes them significantly profitable targets for Russian precision strikes. The Iskander-M system was first confirmed to have been used to efficiently goal a Patriot system on February 23, 2024, with a subsequent strike utilizing the Iskander-M confirmed by drone footage to have largely destroyed Ukrainian Patriot system close to the Sergeevka locality within the disputed Donetsk regionon March 10 that yr. The assault, and carefully coinciding Iskander-M strikes on Ukraine’s Soviet-built S-300 air defence techniques, have been assessed to have left floor forces within the area way more uncovered, with the neutralisation of the techniques thus serving as a power multiplier for Russian forces within the area launching additional assaults.
Within the second week of July, 2024, new footage confirmed the destruction of two batteries from a Patriot system close to the settlement Yuzhnoye within the Odessa area utilizing Iskander-M techniques, in addition to a close-by Giraffe radar station. On August 11 three extra surface-to-air missile batteries and an AN/MPQ-65 radar have been reported to have been destroyed in Iskander-M strikes. Footage launched on August 17 showedthe destruction of three batteries within the Lyubimovka settlement in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk area, after a single 9K720 missile from an Iskander-M system deployed cluster warheads towards them. The Patriot is exported for about $2.5 billion per system, withthe destruction of huge numbers of techniques utilizing comparatively low price ballistic missile belongings depleting Ukraine’s total worth in Western-supplied weaponry at a low price to Russian forces. Russian forces’ capacity to neutralise Patriot techniques have brought on critical considerations each inside NATO, the place america, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Romania and Sweden all depend on the techniques, in addition to additional afield comparable to in Northeast Asia as Japan, South Korea and the Republic of China all rely the system or regionally produced derivatives for his or her defence.
