By Geoff Lamear
President Joe Biden has already pledged to provide air defense to Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s series of cruise missile strikes. At first glance, this seems appropriate. Air defense can mitigate the threat from missiles, drones and warplanes. But in Ukraine’s context, these weapons would be more useful on paper than in reality.
Ukraine’s front line is roughly 1,553 miles. This is too vast of a front line to defend from air and missile attacks, and Ukraine has to worry about these attacks in its rear, too. Even the most technologically advanced air defense systems wouldn’t be able to protect Ukraine’s 600,000 square kilometers of territory. And Ukraine’s own air defenses are too lacking for this gap to be bridged by any outside aid.
Ukraine’s current air defense arsenal consists of outdated Soviet technology, namely Soviet S-8 and S-300 systems sourced from the United States and Slovakia, its own stockpile of S-300 and Bu-Mk1 (also known as S-11) systems, and some short-range air defense systems such as Tor-Ms, Strela-10s, Osa-AKMs and Tunguskas.
Despite this myriad of systems, only the S-300 has the capability to protect against long-range threats, and even this system can be overwhelmed by saturation attacks like the barrage that Russia has launched in recent days. The rest of these systems are designed for pinpoint defense of assets or to protect a maneuvering army unit. None of these can stop the type of threat that Ukraine now faces.
This piece was originally published in Stars and Stripes on October 19, 2022. Read more HERE.