Military Watch:

Russian Iskander-M Ballistic Missile Strike Takes Out One of Ukraine’s Last S-300 Air Defence Systems

Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Missile and Space , Battlefield

Military Watch Magazine Editorial Staff

January-6th-2025

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Iskander-M Launch and Targeted S-300 in Dnipropetrovsk

On January 6 a strike by a Russian Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile system destroyed parts of a Ukrainian Air Force S-300PS air defence system near the city of Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The location represents one of the westernmost positions at which hostilities are ongoing, as Ukraine has continued to lose ground in its resource rich Russian speaking regions. Components of the S-300 system destroyed appear to include 5N63S command post, the 30N6 illumination and guidance radar, and accompanying support vehicles. Ukraine previously deployed Europe’s largest and most capable network of surface to air missile systems, with S-300P, PS, PT and V systems having been concentrated there in considerable numbers by the Soviet Armed Forces when the country disintegrated, alongside complementary shorter ranged systems such as the medium ranged BuK. Although dating back to the 1980s, these systems were cutting edge and considered well ahead of their time during the Cold War, which allowed them to present a primary impediment to Russian advances when full scale hostilities broke out in February 2022.

Surface to Air Missile Battery From Ukrainian S-300 System

Shortages of S-300s and other air defence systems has long been a leading concern for Ukraine’s supporters, with multiple NATO members having responded by seriously depleting their inventories of American MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence systems to re-arm Ukraine. With Western Bloc states deploying ground based air defence systems in small fractions of the quantities which the Soviet Union did, however, their capacity to make up for losses is seriously limited. As early as November 2022 Ukrainian Air Force chief spokesperson Colonel Yury Ignat told the London based Financial Times that the inability to procure additional missiles for the S-300 and BuK systems posed a major threat, indicating that the service’s ability to continue to fire two missiles at each incoming Russian projectile, as was standard practice for air defence units, would be undermined. 

In April 2023 leaks of secret documents from the U.S. Department of Defence showed that there were rising concerns within the Pentagon regarding the state of the Ukrainian Air Force’s surface to air missile network. Pentagon officials assessed that Ukrainian air defences assigned to protect forces on the frontlines would “be completely reduced” by late May that year, allowing Russian air power to play a much greater role on the battlefield in support of its ground forces. This did indeed materialise, with Russian air strikes widely reported to have played a growing role in supplementing the country’s considerable artillery superiority. Ukrainian Army frontline personnel have lamented “the additional devastating power” of Russian bombing, stressing the they were obliterating their underground bunkers and opening“hell’s gates” on their positions. The weaker Ukraine’s air defence network has become, the more easily the Russian Air Force has been able to provide support to ground forces.

Ukrainian Patriot System Milliseconds Before Iskander Strike in March 2024

Iskander-M ballistic missile systems have been used to great effect against Ukrainian surface to air missile systems from 2024 in particular, allowing them to serve as force multipliers that significantly increase the vulnerability of nearby Ukrainian forces.  In March footage showed the systems striking Ukrainian Patriot and S-300 systems, while in July footage showed them destroying two batteries from another Patriot system near the settlement Yuzhnoye in the Odessa region. Footage released on August 17 showed the destruction of three surface to air missile batteries from a U.S.-supplied MIM-104 Patriot air defence system in the Lyubimovka settlement in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region using cluster munitions. On December 15 an Iskander strike was confirmed to have destroyed an AN/MPQ-65 radar station and four surface to air missile launchers from another Patriot system, coinciding with attacks targeting infrastructure at Ukrainian military airfields, personnel concentrations, and military equipment in 146 areas. Successful strikes on S-300 systems, which are fielded much more widely, have been significantly more common. 

Surface to Air Missile Batteries From Ukrainian Patriot Systems

Cluster Warhead Explosions From iskander-M Strike on Patriot Batteries

Iskander-M Launch and Targeted S-300 in Dnipropetrovsk

Ballistic Missile Launch From Iskander-M System

Surface to Air Missile Batteries From Ukrainian S-300 System

Surface to Air Missile Batteries From Ukrainian Patriot Systems

Cluster Warhead Explosions From iskander-M Strike on Patriot Batteries

Iskander-M Launch and Targeted S-300 in Dnipropetrovsk

Ballistic Missile Launch From Iskander-M System

Surface to Air Missile Batteries From Ukrainian S-300 System

Surface to Air Missile Batteries From Ukrainian Patriot Systems

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