S-300, Tor, and Buk: Ukrainian military strikes Russian anti-aircraft units

Operators of the 14th Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Forces, together with the Black Forest brigade, destroyed the command post of an anti-aircraft division and hit S-300, Tor, and Buk systems.

The press service of the 14th Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Forces released the footage of the combat operation.

Throughout April, operators of the units thinned out the echeloned air defense of Russian troops in the Donetsk region, knocking out a rare S-300V self-propelled launcher with ballistic missile interceptors, as well as Tor-M2 and Buk-M3 systems while they were operating or moving between positions.

In addition, the Ukrainian military managed to find and destroy the invaders’ command and control vehicle, which served as the command post of an anti-aircraft missile division.

The use of American Switchblade 600 barrage munitions, which can be identified by their characteristic interface, is of particular interest. They operated in cooperation with Ukrainian Shark reconnaissance drones.

The strike drone can operate within a radius of up to 40 kilometers, indicating that Russian targets are located several dozen kilometers from the front line.

The Switchblade 600 itself could have been launched from a short distance from the line of combat, as using a transport and launch container for the 23-kilogram UAV eliminates the need for a catapult. It takes no more than 10 minutes to launch the strike drone.

Earlier this year, the Ukrainian military destroyed another S-300V anti-aircraft missile system in the Zaporizhia region using an unknown strike drone type.

This is a fairly rare tracked version of the Soviet medium-range air defense system, which was modified in Russia to the S-300VM Antey-2500 version. A distinctive feature of both models is the use of interceptors incompatible with other systems of the S-300 family for intercepting short-range ballistic missiles.

The characteristics and features of this system are determined by the main purpose of the system – to cover frontline areas and ground forces.

Last month, Switchblade 600 strike drones operated by Charlie Company of the 14th Regiment managed to hit Buk and Tor air defense systems deep behind enemy lines.