Smruti Deshpande

Russian forces launched their ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine in February with the use of long-range stand-off missiles. The country continues using several long-range cruise and ballistic missiles that can hit any target, including military infrastructure in all of Ukraine. While Russia is known to have state-of-the-art modern precision-guided missiles, the country has been using even its Soviet-era older and not-so-accurate missiles in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

S400 launcher

Ballistic missiles, launched using rockets from the ground or from aircraft, tend to follow a predictable path and can be comparatively easily tracked. Cruise missiles, on the other hand, use a propulsion system which maintains speed and allows flying using unpredictable flight paths while also allowing trajectories that are close to the ground. These missiles are difficult to detect, track and shoot down.

For the first time in March, Russia used the hypersonic missile Kinzhal to destroy a large underground warehouse of Ukrainian missiles and other weapons, according to the country’s defence ministry. To date this missile has been used thrice in the ongoing conflict. The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (Dagger in Russian) is a nuclear-capable, air-launched, hypersonic ballistic missile, one of six new next generation weapons unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2018.

As Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine in October, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested the West during the G-7 meeting to help the country with more air defence capabilities. This came after Russian missiles destroyed a third of the country's power stations, leaving many cities facing frequent blackouts.

Western Systems

Following Zelenskyy’s appeal, the country was provided with the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) jointly developed by Norway and the US, and Aspide air defence systems from Spain. The NASAMS system is a strong air defence system which has been built to defend against incoming aerial threats such as cruise missiles, aircraft and drones. Each NASAMS consists of 12 interceptor SAMs. NASAMS is a network-centric short to medium range ground-based air defence system. The Kongsberg/ Raytheon NASAMS Air Defence System features net-centric architecture, multiple simultaneous engagements, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) capabilities, closely integrated and adapted to a country’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD).

The Aspide 2000 missile is the powerful upgraded version of the Aspide multi-role missile for use in surface-to-air systems. Its operational performance has been enhanced making the missile capable of engaging attacking aircraft before they can release their airborne stand-off rocket propelled missiles. The Aspide 2000 missile is equipped with an enhanced single stage rocket motor to increase the missile speed, lateral acceleration and effective range by as much as 40 per cent compared to the Aspide baseline missile.

Earlier, Germany had delivered its first IRIS-T defence system to Ukraine. It has a short-range and is highly manoeuvrable. The system has fast target acquisition capability and a full hemisphere engagement. The IRIS-T programme sees Germany, Greece, Norway, Italy, Spain and Sweden unite to provide access to technology and expertise. Diehl Defence is the main contractor. The imaging infrared seeker provides extremely high resolution,