ATACMS in Ukraine.
In the context of the recent US aids package that allegedly includes more ATACMS rounds let’s talk about the current state of the Russian theatre BMD. First - the shooters. Presently the most common BMD capable systems would be (a) S-300PM/S-400 and Buk-M2/M3. After those there is (b) the S-300V3/4. There are also new generation systems in limited service (c) - S-350 and S-500. The challenge (a) category has is the BMD search capability. Buk, even current mods, has very limited BMD performance, S-400 can do better, ie with its battle management radar, but even it is rather underwhelming. Otherwise, despite limited protected area, it works. The (b) category has all the organic assets it needs, including a specialized sector radar, the challenge with it is more to do with limited (if greater than for (a)) protected area and limited available numbers, making long term sustained surveillance challenging. The (c) category shares many of the same issues as (b), though in case of S-500 we ...
