The “fire dragon” S-350 Vityaz appeared at a Russian airbase more than 60 km from the border with Ukraine, seemingly showing Moscow’s growing concern and wariness of Kiev’s long-range strike capabilities.
Video released by Russian media last weekend shows the Su-25 fighter jet taking off from an airbase near the border for a mission in Ukraine.
The remarkable point in the video is that “the fire dragon S-350 Vityaz appeared near the runway, marking the first time this weapon has been deployed by Russia near the border with Ukraine. It is known that this is a new medium-range air defense complex for Russia.
According to defense expert Guy Plopsky in the US, the S-350 Vityaz complex appearing in the video includes a 50N6A fire control radar, a 96L6-TsP all-altitude warning radar and two 50P6 ammunition trucks cum launchers or a loader. ammunition cum launcher 50P6T. The time and location of the video was not disclosed by the Russian military, but experts believe that this is the Taganrog airbase in the Rostov province, bordering the Sea of Azov.
The S-350 Vityaz is a Russian medium-range missile capable of destroying most aerodynamic targets including ballistic missiles. The S-350 Vityaz air defense missile is designed and manufactured by Almaz-Antey corporation to replace the role of the S-300PS and S-300PT-1A missile systems in the Russian army. This is the latest Russian anti-aircraft missile system that has been tested since 2015. Many information said that Russia secretly brought this system to Syria for “fire test”.
What makes the great power of the S-350 Vityaz air defense system is the small-sized variant of the 9M96 anti-aircraft missile with an effective range of 40km. Some newer ammunition types allow the S-350 system name to be able to engage targets up to 120km away. With its small size, each launcher in the S-350 complex can carry 12 rounds.
If an S-350 complex is equipped with 8 launchers, the total number of ammunition will increase to 92 rounds. This allows the system to be able to fight with extreme intensity. The S-350 can simultaneously track 16 flying targets or 12 ballistic missile targets and can simultaneously fire two missiles at one of them.
At the same time, the radar system is capable of simultaneously tracking more than 100 targets. Therefore, a command-control point deployed 2 radars was able to kill more than 200 targets, simultaneously launch 32 missiles to attack 16 targets at a time, forming a network. Strong regional air defense.
Although primarily designed to destroy low-flying targets, the S-350 can fully deal with many other threats when needed such as guided, cruise or ballistic missiles, weapons. High-precision aircraft, fighter jets, helicopters or reconnaissance aircraft, armed UAVs…
