Drone From Raid Regiment Struck Rare Pantsir-S1 on BAZ Chassis in Mariupol

The pilots of the 413th  Regiment ‘Raid’ of the Unmanned Systems Forces struck a rare Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system on a BAZ-6909-019 wheeled chassis with drones.

A video of the combat operation was released by USF commander Robert ‘Madyar’ Brovdi.

The enemy anti-aircraft missile and gun complex was hunted down on the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the temporarily occupied Mariupol.

The strike was carried out by domestic medium-range (middle strike) drones on the night of February 27.

The USF commander stressed that the detection and destruction of components of Russian long-, medium-, and short-range air defense systems is one of Ukraine’s priorities.

The rare Pantsir-S1

Back in the 2000s, the Russians demonstrated this air defense system on a BAZ-6909-019 (8×8) chassis from the Bryansk Automobile Plant.

However, the serial Pantsir-S1 systems were delivered to the Russian army on the KamAZ-6560 (8×8) chassis. Therefore, it is unknown whether the occupying army was supplied with systems on the BAZ chassis at all.

Perhaps the system destroyed in Mariupol was the only one of its kind in Russia, and it was transferred to the military by the manufacturer itself, on whose balance sheet it had probably been for all these years.

The footage shows that the Russians, trying to protect their complex from drones, covered its cabin with some kind of superstructure that distorts its appearance. The rear pair of wheels also received protection from damage.

Against the backdrop of heavy losses suffered by Russian air defense forces from constant Ukrainian strikes, it is not surprising that the Russians are forced to use rare or even single examples of their equipment to cover troops or important objects in the temporarily occupied territory or in the Russian Federation itself.

It should be noted that the Pantsir-S1 is tasked with combating Ukrainian drones and missiles. However, as the video shows, it does not always manage to respond to such threats in time.

For example, a few days ago, soldiers from the 1st Center of the USF also destroyed such a complex near the village of Krasnosilske in the temporarily occupied Crimea.