Russia's newest weapons are not capable of countering older Western missiles. In particular, this is proven by the Ukrainian strikes on the temporarily occupied Crimea.
The telegraph writes about this.
It is noted that the S-400, which entered service with the Russian army in 2007, is one of the most advanced Russian air defense systems and costs more than a billion dollars. However, Ukraine's recent strikes have proven that it is still vulnerable even to older weapons, in particular the American Atacms missiles, which have been in service with the US army since 1986, or the Storm Shadow, created in the mid-90s.
"People have been exaggerating the importance of Russian air defense for years, – notes the director of military science at the Royal United Armed Forces Institute (RUSI), Matthew Saville, – In fact, we have seen in the past that they have not protected the Syrians in Syria. They didn't protect Iranians in Iran, and now they didn't protect Russians in Crimea.
Western cruise missiles are more difficult to intercept than their Russian counterparts and are distinguished by their stealth technology, explains Fabian Hoffmann, PhD, who specializes in missile technology at the University of Oslo. So, Storm Shadow flies at a low altitude, and its carefully thought-out shape makes it difficult to be detected by Russian radars. That is why this missile can fly past air defense systems unimpeded. As it nears the end of its flight, it sharply gains altitude and then dives at the target.
«There's a lot more planning involved in hitting with Storm Shadows. The Ukrainians really plan these trajectories, they carefully lay them out to bypass Russian air defense equipment. We also see that the Russian operators do not seem to be very qualified,&rdash; says Hoffman.
According to him, the Ukrainians are very methodically and systematically bypassing the S-300 and S-400 air defense systems, and NATO would do the same.
Matthew Saville explained that Ukraine's attacks using long-range missiles are accompanied by a large number of attack drones, which gives a "huge quantitative weight", which is difficult for Russia to repel.
The aggressor country was forced to place its weapons more compactly, considering the 1,000-kilometer front line with Ukraine, as well as the need to protect Kaliningrad, the Kola Peninsula, the border with Finland and the eastern part of the country, around Vladivostok.
«The Ukrainians are now striking in all directions. The Russians have a large stockpile of various types of weapons, but now they have to make difficult decisions about prioritization,&rdash; Saville noted.
A series of strikes on Crimea forced the Kremlin to take retaliatory measures. For example, Russia has deployed the S-500, a state-of-the-art anti-missile defense system, to protect the Kerch bridge on the peninsula. Sevilla called the Ukrainian strikes “a headache for Putin”.
“To the Russians it is more difficult to base and launch aircraft from there. It is more difficult for them to store ammunition there and supply their troops. And this, to be honest, is inconvenient», – emphasized the specialist.