Russia is undermining Ukraine’s air defense system – but it has huge problems of its own

Experts say that Russia’s air defense network has been strained by the fight against Ukraine and has not been able to adequately adapt to the threat posed by long-range drones and small aircraft. Russia has a number of air defense systems, including ground-based systems, fighter jets and radars, as well as electronic warfare equipment. Moscow also has one of the few permanently operational stationary anti-missile systems, the A-135.

Russian systems have different ranges and altitudes, says Dr. Marina Miron, PhD, from the Department of Military Studies at King’s College London. However, Ukraine has consistently targeted territory deep in Russia using drones, causing panic and explosions in Moscow, targeting Russian oil refineries and targeting strategic bases such as the Engels Long-Range Aviation Center in Russia’s Saratov region.

Russia’s current anti-aircraft defense strategy, which runs until 2030, does not include such technology — although Russian radars have long considered the threat of unmanned aircraft, says Mattias Ekens, a defense and security analyst in the European division of the RAND think tank.

“The Kremlin seems to have been surprised that its territory is vulnerable to drone strikes from Ukraine, including attacks on air bases like Engels,” he says. – Instead of formulating a coherent strategy, the Russian authorities usually resort to ad hoc measures after attacks on their territory. Russia’s challenge is not a lack of equipment, but a historical focus on a different threat.”

The war in Ukraine has prompted Russia to move several of its air defense systems closer to the Ukrainian border. The Pancir-S1 is one such system moved to plug the gaps and deployed on government buildings — but the effectiveness of these systems remains unclear, Eken said.

There is some evidence that current short-range air defense systems – particularly the Pancir – cannot effectively counter small, lightweight drones, he says. Footage of Pancir being hit by relatively inexpensive drones in strikes shows that the problems are technological as well as related to how Russia deploys the systems.

Relocating anti-aircraft defense systems from their original sites “jeopardises their effectiveness” in defending cities like the capital against air threats – such as cruise and ballistic missiles – in 2023. wrote analyst Maksim Starczak for The Jamestown Foundation, a defense think tank, in February.

Moscow has also withdrawn air defense systems from its western outpost of Kaliningrad, which is surrounded by several NATO countries around the Baltic Sea, to replenish its stockpile of systems destroyed or damaged in Ukraine, the British government said in November. Ukraine recently decommissioned a number of Russia’s advanced S-400 ground-based air defense systems, and the air defense redeployment showed Moscow was feeling “overstretched”, London said at the time.

Adapted from Newsweek.