How Russia can overcome Ukraine’s air defense systems that have been upgraded by NATO is an issue that has attracted a lot of media attention.
Modified by NATO experts, Ukrainian air defense systems including Buk-M1 and Osa-AKM have become a major threat to frontline Russian aviation participating in the special military operation.
So specifically, what new weapons can foreign partners equip for Ukraine’s air defense missile systems, and how Russia will have to deal with them when the tactical and technical features have been significantly improved?
The Buk-M1 and Osa-AKM air defense systems currently pose the greatest danger to Russian aviation on the Ukrainian battlefield, after being upgraded by specialists of the North Atlantic Military Alliance.
TASS news agency released the above information after consulting military sources, this is the result of a “reboot” process from European “gunsmiths”, now the target is said to be optically captured. school, not a radar station.
Faced with the above situation, PolitExpert magazine asked military analyst and director of the Russian Air Defense Museum – Reserve Colonel Yuri Knutov what changes in his view NATO could make to the missile defense system. not Ukraine and how to defeat them.
“I think the revision takes care of the anti-cruise and anti-drone issues. This is the most pressing problem in Ukraine right now. NATO can also put a laser rangefinder on the Osa-AKM because when the laser sight is installed, the accuracy of fire will increase.”
“Of course, Osa-AKM can fire and is quite effective at helicopters, including low-flying aircraft and suicide UAVs. However, the combat range of the system is not high, with an effective range of just over 5 km a little,” noted the military expert.
It should be added, Osa-AKM is a modernized version of the Soviet-era air defense system, put into service in 1971. Even after Russia decommissioned it, it still faithfully served Some countries including Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine.
In fact, the Osa-AKM system is an armored personnel carrier with swimming capabilities armed with missiles, but it is much weaker than the Buk-M1, Knutov explained.
According to military expert Knutov, the Buk-M1 is a pretty good air defense complex, it has proven itself in a number of local conflicts, with the ability to defeat all types of helicopters, named cruise fire, and large unmanned aircraft.
Both of the above-mentioned air defense complexes, after being upgraded, have become quite powerful and meet the requirements of modern warfare, Knutov concluded. Against them, however, Russia has its own weapons.
“We are fighting with these air defense systems, we have Kh-31 missiles with various improvements with the ability to completely destroy the complex. We’re doing this on a regular basis.”
“In the first three months, these complexes proved to be very effective, but now almost every day we destroy one or two systems. In addition, the Geran-2 suicide drone also has a navigation mode beam, can destroy Buk-M1 and Osa-AKM”, expert Knutov emphasized.
Russia’s new tactics in the fight against Ukraine’s air defense systems greatly worried President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kyiv military officials fear Moscow has the “key” to “open the sky”.
But it is also impossible to rule out the possibility that Ukraine voiced its concerns only to force NATO to quickly deliver more advanced air defense missile systems to them.
