Ukraine has claimed that Russia is now using its S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles to attack land targets in Ukraine.
The assertion, from the governor of the Mykolaiv Oblast, in southern Ukraine, suggests that Russia’s shortage of standoff weapons to attack land targets may well be worse than thought.
The S-300 apparently does possess a little-known surface-to-surface capability, MSN reports.
Using the Telegram instant messaging service, Vitaly Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv Oblast, introduced the claim about the S-300, without specifying which versions are being used.
Russia operates both the S-300P series on 8×8 wheeled chassis and the S-300V that uses a tracked chassis, and which offers an improved anti-ballistic missile capability.
Both S-300P and S-300V series have been used by Russia (and also by Ukraine) in the Ukrainian war. These systems can fire ar variety of missiles.
Kim says that 12 missiles were fired by S-300s in a land attack role, targeting Mykolaiv Oblast, but he also notes that, despite the missiles being retrofitted with GPS guidance, they remain inaccurate.
The ability of the S-300 to engage targets on the ground has barely been reported in Western sources although an article that was published by the Belarusian Naviny news website in 2011 provides details.
According to this account, the Belarusian military tested its S-300 air defense systems against “important ground targets on the territory of a potential enemy” during an exercise in the same year. Belarusian officials claimed this was the first time that the country had experimented with this capability, which allows an “adapted … S-300 to destroy ground targets tens of kilometers from firing positions.”
However, as the article points out, “The possibility of hitting stationary ground targets was originally incorporated by the developers into the design of the S-300 air defense system adopted for service in 1979, as well as all its subsequent modifications.”
MSN
