The Russian Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile has been credited with a number of vital latest successes within the Ukrainian theatre, with Russian state defence conglomerate Rostec praising the system when elaborating to state media on its efficiency. “The adversary can’t repel Iskander strikes. The ballistic missile flies alongside an advanced and unpredictable trajectory at an unlimited velocity. The overload throughout manoeuvring significantly exceeds the overload that the majority NATO-made anti-aircraft missiles can endure. Due to this fact, the Ukrainian military has no capabilities to shoot down Iskanders. The adversary can solely observe the flight of those missiles and realise the inevitable destruction of its websites,” the agency said.
TheIskander-M first entered service in 2006, and was developed as an enhanced by-product of the Soviet OTR-23 Oka ballistic missile system, and particularly the improved Oka-U variant. The system was first was fight examined two years later within the Russo-Georgian Struggle, and subsequently towards Western-backed Islamist rebel teams when offering counterinsurgency assist to the Syrian authorities within the 2010s. It has been exported to Algeria, Belarus and Armenia, with expertise transfers reported to have assisted within the improvement of the same North Korean KN-23 and South Korean Hyunmoo 2 programs. An air launched variant of the Iskander’s 9K720 ballistic missile additionally entered service in 2018 as a part of the Kinzhal system, and could be carried by MiG-31K/I and Su-34 strike fighters and by Tu-22M3 bombers.
Expressions of confidence within the Iskander-M’s capabilities observe a number of main successes fight testing the missile beneath excessive depth fight situations, together with towards superior variants of the American MIM-104 Patriot air defence system, which is probably the most able to its sort fielded by NATO members. Lower than every week earlier than the assertion from Rostec, footage from the Dnepropetrovsk area confirmed the destruction of a number of key elements a Patriot missile system in an Iskander-M strike, with the AN/MPQ-65 multifunctional radar station, the fight management cabin, and missile launch autos, all destroyed.
The Iskander system was first confirmed to have efficiently destroyed a Patriot system on February 23, 2024, with a subsequent strike destroying one other Patriot system close to the Sergeevka locality on March 10 that 12 months, which was assessed to have left floor forces within the area uncovered. Subsequently within the second week of July, 2024, new footage confirmed the destruction of two batteries within the Odessa area, whereas in August 11 three extra missile batteries and an AN/MPQ-65 radar have been reported to have been destroyed in Iskander-M strikes. The system has gained a number of additional successes in neutralising Ukrainian air defence websites, with its 9K720 missiles’ capacity to evade focusing on additionally permitting them to neutralise a variety of different excessive worth targets with higher reliability even when such targets are nicely defended.
