The Ukrainian military acknowledges that it will struggle to counter the Iranian-made Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar ballistic missiles expected to be sent to Russia.
Within months of the war in Ukraine, Russia began to experience a severe shortage of long-range precision-guided missiles. Specifically, he has only 120 Iskanders and 40 Daggers left, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
Yuri Ignat, a spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on November 7 that the Russian Federation has not officially agreed with Iran on the supply of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar ballistic missiles. Tehran will deliver munitions by air to occupied Crimea and by sea to Russian ports on the Caspian Sea. At the same time, at the moment there is no exact information on the number of missiles.
The Ukrainian military also expects the Kremlin to place Iranian missiles north of our border in regions of Russia and Belarus. In this case, they will be able to reach the targets in Kyiv in about 15 minutes and shoot them “theoretically possible, but very difficult in practice.”
General characteristics of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar
Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar are ballistic missiles capable of hitting targets at a distance of 300 to 700 km. Iran’s missiles are technologically inferior to the Iskander missiles, however, the Fateh-110 carries a 600-kilogram warhead and has an accuracy of three kilometers.
The Zolfaghar (in operation since 2017) has the ability to separate the warhead from the rest of the missile’s body during an intermediate flight phase, making it more difficult to detect and intercept. Also, the rocket has a warhead weighing 579 kilograms and has a very high accuracy of 10 meters.
Why are Iranian missiles difficult to shoot down?
Military expert Oleg Zhdanov said ballistic missiles are difficult to shoot down because of their speed. The same applies to Iran’s weapons, which Russia intends to receive.
“The trajectory of ballistic missiles is easy to calculate. And our radars (radar stations) do this. But ballistic missiles are difficult to shoot down because of their speed, they rise high. The missile rises, stops -climbing and flying horizontally along. the trajectory. And then it starts to accelerate “The question of breaking it is speed and time. If we see the launch of a ballistic missile, then we have time to react to shoot this missile. And if Iskander rises 100-150 km above, then he falls from hypersonic speed, somewhere around Mach 4-4.5,” explained Zhdanov.
The expert emphasized that it is also difficult to shoot the Iranian missiles because their bodies fall during the flight.
“Iranian missiles have a peculiarity that they drop the main body of the missile in a certain trajectory. And if the missile is 8-9 meters long, then it is very clearly visible. And here it becomes three meters long, its front part is conical, and the radar sees it badly, but it flies quickly,” explained Oleg Zhdanov.
New air defense systems
Yesterday, Ukraine received the long-awaited Western air defense system. The arrival of Norway’s NASAMS and Italy’s Aspide comes amid calls by Ukraine for more Western air defense systems as our country prepares for possible attacks by Iranian missiles and drones.
Experts believe that these anti-aircraft systems will help strengthen the Ukrainian air defense and block at least one large regional center. According to military expert Peter Chernik, NASAMS operates on the basis of the AIM-120 rocket. The two batteries received by Ukraine are at least 36 missiles.
“It will be able to block the direction of operation of, for example, a large regional center and seriously improve the work of air defense there… Let me remind you that NASAMS covers Washington in the second echelon. 36 missiles can be fired at Sa at the same time, it’s a lot … so they need to improve the air defense system they can,” he told Channel 24.
As for the Aspide air defense systems, they operate on the basis of the American AIM-7 Sparrow missile and have an operating area within 35 kilometers. Despite the fact that the technical and tactical characteristics of this system are somewhat worse than NASAMS or IRIS-T, they will be able to significantly strengthen Ukrainian air defense.
“These systems are integrated and a section of the sky is significantly covered. Therefore, our air defense is growing qualitatively. However, I emphasize that 100% closing of the sky does not happen in principle, ” emphasized Chernik.
What APU says
The Ukrainian command believes that everyone should be “realistic” about Ukraine’s chances against ballistic missiles. The Armed Forces of Ukraine recognize that countering Iranian-made ballistic missiles is very difficult. The military also expects the Russians to deploy Iranian missiles north of the Ukrainian border, so they can hit targets in Kyiv within 15 minutes.
“We need to think not about some kind of Iron Dome, but about destroying Russian missile systems with their launchers. This is the easiest and most realistic way,” said Yuri Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As for Western air defense systems, according to him, there are only a few of them in Ukraine to deal with Iranian missiles. But the main thing is that the military has not yet found out whether such systems are effective enough against ballistic missiles in combat.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.