Russia started to hit Ukraine with S-400 missiles: what is the danger?

The Russians used S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems in another massive strike against Ukraine on January 14. In particular, Kyiv also came under their attack.

This was reported by Defense Express.

The outlet from its own sources received a photo of the wreckage of 48N6DM missiles from an S-400 missile system. It should be noted that the Russians have used S-300 missiles more than once before, but they were 5V55 missiles, which have a shorter range and a smaller warhead.

The 48N6DM missile, which is not in service with the AFU, is said to have a larger warhead and more importantly, a longer range. For 5V55 the range of the missile is up to 75 km, and its warhead weight is 133 kg. The 48N6DM has a range of 250 km and 180 kg, respectively.

The launching area for 48N6DM missiles with S-400 is probably the territory of the Belarusian airfield Zyabrovka near Gostomel which is 20 km away from the Ukrainian border.

It is noted that the proven launch range of 48N6DM as a ground-to-ground missile is from 230 km. The kill zone allows keeping under the gunfire from the territory of Belarus not only Kyiv but also such cities as Zhytomyr, Rivne, Lutsk, and Lviv. Previously, due to the use of 5B55 missiles with a proven range of 120 km against ground targets by the Russians, all these cities were not in the risk zone.

We should add that the use of anti-aircraft missiles for ground attack implies their launch along a ballistic trajectory. Therefore, their interception requires missile defense systems, such as the Patriot PAC3 with kinetic MSE interceptors.

In addition, the 48H6DM missile has a huge top speed of 2.5 km/sec. Thus, it takes a few minutes to fly 230 km.

The mass of the 48N6DM missile and its velocity, together with the size of its warhead, allows it to penetrate walls or the roof of a house and cause significant damage.

It is emphasized that because of this accuracy, it is impossible to talk about choosing a particular object to hit, so the target of the attacks can only be the city as a whole.

Author – Anastasiya Glotova, 16/01/2022