Russian troops have lost one of their most advanced air defense systems, the S-400 ‘Triumf’ after it was hit by a Ukrainian rocket, Defense Blog reported. The incident was reported by an obituary printed for a deceased soldier.
The conflict in Ukraine is now going on for nine months straight. The situation has led to numerous deaths on both sides of the border. Along with that, material destruction has also been rampant ever since. This time, the material loss was that of an advanced air defense system.
The S-400 is a long-range, surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM) created by Russia. It came after the S-300, introduced during the Soviet era, and made multiple advancements to retaliate and combat when needed against the new warfare.
The S-400 is designed to attack and destroy a plethora of aerial threats. Let it be stealth aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise, or ballistic missiles, it can face it all. The S-400 is a mobile launch system that can deploy up to four types of missiles to counter threats that go way beyond visual range (BVR).
It has a range of nearly 250 miles (400 km) while its radar systems can scan targets in the range of 370 miles (600 km) and engage with up to 80 targets at a time.
According to a post on the page of the RAND Corporation, a research organization based in the U.S., the S-400 can be classified as a high-performance high-altitude missile aerospace defense system (HIMADS) but is not without its limitations.
The radar is a significant component of the system’s detection capabilities and when deployed at ground level can massively shrink the range to nothing beyond the horizon. To avoid this, the radars need to be placed on tall masts. However, an even better system would be to put them on airborne warning and control aircraft systems (AWACS) or aerostats.