«The air defense system's operating time was significantly exceeded, for which they paid the price»
On Tuesday night, a serious anti-aircraft battle broke out in Kyiv. A colorful picture of what happened for several minutes in the night sky of Kyiv was posted on social networks. As the ex-head of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Special Purpose Command (air defense district of Moscow), retired colonel Sergey Khatylev, told MK, the Ukrainian air defense for the first time massively used the American anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) Patriot, but the result was deplorable for him.
Judging by the video, the anti-aircraft missile system in Kiev launched several dozen interceptor missiles in succession, which went in the same direction. For what purposes the air defense system worked and what he managed to shoot down is not reported.
Perhaps it was our massive raid, or perhaps Kyiv attacked numerous decoys. One way or another, but after the Patriot completely fired its ammunition load of missiles (by the way, one volley of the complex from several launchers is estimated at $150 million), there was a big explosion at the place where the rocket had just taken off.
It is possible that Russian anti-radar missiles or Geran-2 attack drones worked on the positions of the air defense system.
This is how Colonel Sergey Khatylev assessed the night battle in the sky of Kiev:
— «Patriot» worked in the maximum possible variant of combat use. Four volleys fired. In the first, 8 anti-aircraft guided missiles were launched, in the second — 6.
In the third volley, the shooting was carried out at a low-altitude target, it is possible that the missile exploded on the ground.
The fourth volley was the longest. Launched 20 anti-aircraft guided missiles. In total, the total consumption was 34 missiles.
— Can you estimate at what pace the shooting was carried out?
— It can be seen that the shooting was carried out at a different pace. Shooting alternates with a burst of two missiles and single ones. Probably, they fired in order to realize the maximum capabilities of the anti-aircraft missile system.
— Were there any punctures?
— The operating time of the air defense system was significantly exceeded, which served as a blow to the Patriot. It is enough to hit two or four small shells to disable anti-aircraft guided missiles on the launcher, the antenna fabric of the receiving and transmitting station and everything above the combat control cabin.
Thus, the life of the battery of the Patriot air defense system «in combat is 2-3 minutes.
The main problem of Ukrainian air defense, which was presented by the Patriots, is that it lacks separation of air defense systems in terms of altitudes of use and affected areas, sufficient fire density has not been created, no interaction. There is not much more, I will not list, so as not to give smart advice to the enemy.
The creation of such a system would take tens of billions of dollars and several years. And without it, the «Patriot» is an expensive toy, they played and left it.