Ukraine strikes in Crimea, crippling Russia's top anti-aircraft system

The Ukrainian attack on the Dzhankoi airbase in Crimea using MGM-140 ATACMS ballistic missiles destroyed an entire battery of Russia's best anti-aircraft and missile defence system, the S-400 Triumph. We present the details of this attack and explain what was precisely destroyed.

The attack on the Dzhankoi airbase in Crimea carried out with ballistic missiles MGM-140 ATACMS has so far destroyed the S-400 Triumph system battery, which a photo has confirmed. The destruction included the launchers and—most importantly—the command vehicle and radars, which Russia cannot replace due to sanctions on electronic components.

In the case of radars, it is extremely difficult to change the parts supplier. It is worth noting that building such a component takes not a few months but even several years. In comparison, we are talking about the loss of trained staff for the command centre, which is also hard to replace. This is a much greater loss than the launchers, which can be relatively easily and quickly produced. Moreover, planes, helicopters, and personnel present at the airport at the time of the attack were also reported to have been damaged.

In the attack, the Ukrainians used the oldest missiles in the M39 version from the 90s, which have a range of about 164 km. Their guidance is not very accurate due to inertial navigation only. Still, the lack of precision is largely offset by a cluster warhead containing a 950 M74 APAM bomblets load.

These resemble balls weighing about 590 grams and having a diameter of 60 mm. Upon explosion, they pepper the area with a shower of tungsten fragments capable of penetrating even the armour of light vehicles, mixed with incendiary material to further cause fires.

It remains an open question how these old missiles eliminated Russia's most modern air defense system. It's possible that Ukrainians used, for example, M140 ATACMS missiles along with, say, S-200 Vega missiles or other objects acting as decoys on which the Russians wasted their anti-missiles.

It's also possible that the Russian crew was untrained and simply could not cope since the older Soviet-era S-300 systems used by Ukrainians quite effectively managed to shoot down even new Russian ballistic missiles in Iskander.