Evidence Emerges of S-400 System Components Destroyed in India: Operator’s Obituary Published

Indian media have published an obituary for an operator of the S-400 air defense system component that Pakistan destroyed.

The First Bihar media reported on this.

During repeated strikes between the countries, Pakistan targeted one of the components of the Indian Armed Forces’ S-400 surface-to-air missile system.

According to Indian media, the incident occurred on May 13, 2025, and the deceased was identified as serviceman Rambabu Kumar Singh — a native of the village of Vasilpur, Bihar state.

As the media noted, the serviceman had recently, on April 10, started a new assignment in Jammu and Kashmir and was scheduled to be transferred to Jodhpur. However, he continued his service in that area due to the worsening situation on the border between the countries.

The deceased was an operator of the S-400 surface-to-air missile system, which India purchased from Russia. These systems are actively deployed in the border regions between India and Pakistan.

It should be noted that a few days ago, Pakistan Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmad stated during a briefing on targets hit in India that the Pakistani Air Force had succeeded in destroying components of India’s S-400 air defense system during combat operations.

As confirmation of this, the Air Vice Marshal presented satellite images showing that the airbase had been struck in two locations.

For comparison, he also provided satellite images of the same area taken before the start of the conflict.

Meanwhile, India attempted to debunk this information. As part of a working visit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to the Adampur air base to refute the reported strike and appeared in front of one of the S-400 air defense system’s launchers.

In doing so, he arguably confirmed the damage to components of the system more than he denied it. This is because Pakistan had claimed it struck a radar and command post, not a launcher, of which there can be up to 12 units in a single regiment.

In total, India ordered five regimental sets of this system in 2018, for a total cost of approximately $5.5 billion. The first systems began arriving in the country in the fall of 2021.

In the fall of 2024, it was reported that Russia was delaying the delivery of S-400 air defense systems to India due to its own needs, specifically, the large number of system components destroyed by the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

Militarnyi previously reported that the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor and executed strikes on terrorist group camps located in Pakistani territory.

It was clarified that nine Pakistani “terrorist infrastructure” facilities associated with the Kashmir tragedy were targeted. Indian forces attacked the headquarters of Islamist militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba.