Ukraine revives Soviet-era defenses as Western aid falls short
Despite the delivery of Western anti-aircraft systems, Ukrainians are attempting to reactivate Soviet-era anti-aircraft systems because Western aid is insufficient for their needs. One of the more intriguing cases is the S-300W anti-aircraft system, which was introduced in the final years of the USSR.
The Ukrainians have essentially depleted all pre-war stockpiles of ammunition for Soviet-era systems. The issue of anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense is particularly problematic since missile production for these systems remained in the USSR and is still located in Russian territory today.
As a result, after exhausting both Ukrainian and Slovakian-donated missile reserves for S-300 systems, these have become unusable. Moreover, the number of competing systems such as Patriot and SAMP/T (a total of seven batteries) delivered to Ukraine is too small to provide full anti-ballistic protection for all key facilities.
It is worth noting that alongside the ongoing war, Ukraine is working to expand its own weapons production and repair capabilities for faulty equipment. This is evident, for example, with Tochka-U ballistic missiles or missiles for the BM-30 Smerch system. It is possible that the launch of the 9M83 missile from an S-300W system, visible in the video below, is the result of refurbishing old or damaged missiles.
There is also the possibility that Ukraine received damaged missiles for repair from abroad, such as the case with missiles for the S-300P system from Bulgaria. For the S-300W system, the only potential source could essentially be Egypt.
S-300W system - the best anti-ballistic system of the USSR
The S-300W system, like the S-300P, was developed at the Almaz-Antey factories but was only introduced in the 1980s. It was a variant designed for Soviet ground forces, which required a mobile solution to protect against ballistic and cruise missiles that they might encounter in NATO countries.
For this reason, the S-300W variant had better capabilities against such threats than the S-300P used in aviation and the navy. Initially, the S-300W's purpose was to shoot down aircraft at distances of up to 60 miles and ballistic missiles at shorter ranges, which, according to Russian declarations, was up to 25 miles.
Over time, new two-stage 9M82 missiles were developed, characterized by an increased range of up to 125 miles for aircraft. Ukraine does not have access to these as they were introduced into service with the S-300W2 system.
A characteristic feature of the 25-foot-long 9M83 missiles is their very high speed, reaching up to 3,800 mph. However, their guidance method and target destruction approach, even in the latest versions, do not match the solutions employed in, for example, PAC-3 MSE missiles.
Russian systems still use outdated semi-active radar guidance technology. In practice, this means that the battery's fire-control radar must continuously track the target until impact, and the target's destruction is executed by a warhead weighing about 330 lbs.
