The Ukrainian Air Force has now confirmed that a number of Russian aircraft shot down over its own territory in May were actually destroyed by a foreign-supplied Patriot air defense system. The possibility that Ukraine’s newly acquired Patriots could be responsible for shooting down these aircraft was highlighted by The War Zone back in July, after the Ukrainian Air Force released a video that appeared to be linked to the destruction of three Russian helicopters on May 13 established a Patriot system.
Confirmation that a Patriot system was used to destroy three Russian Mi-8 Hip helicopters, a Su-34 Fullback fighter and a Su-35 Flanker-E in Russia’s Bryansk region on May 13, was presented by Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Colonel Yuri Ignat to Ukrainian media outlet Novynarnia on November 27.
A typical Patriot battery, a forced acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept, consists of an AN/MPQ-65 or AN/MPQ-53 radar and the necessary fire control, communications and other support components, as well as up to eight Trailer-mounted launchers. You can read more about the Patriot system and its use in the Ukraine conflict in these previous War Zone posts.
According to a machine translation of Novynarnia’s interview with Ignat, the Ukrainian Air Force spokesman noted that the May 13 shootdowns were:
“A brilliant operation led by the Air Force commander. Thanks to their unconventional and decisive actions, [Ukrainian] Patriot SAM units destroyed five aircraft in the Bryansk direction within five minutes and from there bombed our northern regions with guided missiles. I jokingly call it the ‘Bryansk Difference’.”
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Colonel Yuri Ignat in June 2022. Ukrainian Media Center
After the events of May 13, Patriot systems donated from abroad were also responsible for shooting down other Russian aircraft, Ignat points out, leading to a change in Russian air tactics.
“Another Su-35 was shot down [by a Patriot system] over the Black Sea. It happened some time after the events in [the] Bryansk region [on May 13]. And then her [Russian aircraft] stopped flying there for a while because they realized it was dangerous and could be shot down.”
During the interview, Ignat also emphasized the importance of the Patriot batteries for air defense in the local area; including firing Iskander short-range missiles and examples of the air-launched Kinzhal derivative in and around Kiev. Just days after the events of May 13, as The War Zone previously reported, one of the Ukrainian Patriot batteries defending the capital detected more than a dozen incoming Russian missiles, including six Kinzhals missiles, at a distance of about 125 Miles. The Patriot system destroyed them all, the last one at a distance of about 9 miles.
“We [have downed] 15… “Daggers” [Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic air launched ballistic missiles altogether]… plus dozens of … ballistic missiles that flew towards Kiev,” Ignat noted to Novynarnia.
Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, Victory Day parades in Moscow 2018. Russian Presidential Press and Information Office
“Patriot… is an extremely serious technology. After all, it was just a head-on collision.” [hit-to-kill] guarantees the launch of a ballistic missile, all without human intervention. Our people with combat experience in firing the “Daggers” will become mentors not only for our cadets, but also for foreigners. Because no one in the world has ever shot the Patriot’s dagger, [bar Ukraine’s air defense forces]It should be noted that PAC-3 series interceptors used with the Patriot system, variants of which the US has sent to Ukraine, have an explosive lethality enhancer (LE) to reduce the likelihood of Increase target kill. You can read more about it here.
While our initial reporting of the day mentioned the possibility that the Russian plane shot down on May 13th could have been attacked by a surface-to-air missile system like Patriot, a later video released by the Ukrainian Air Force on July 3rd suggested this then this air defense system more precisely. In the footage, two Russian fighter jets and three Russian helicopters can be seen alongside a Patriot battery – all with the date “130523” underneath.
The screenshot of the Ukrainian Air Force video shows images of three Russian helicopters and two Russian fighters painted on the side of a Patriot air defense battery. The three helicopter and two jet images are dated May 13th. Defense industry of Ukraine
Why Ignat confirmed the use of Patriot in the downing of the five Russian planes in May is unclear, except that he was asked about it directly in an interview. During a press conference on July 3 – the same day the Ukrainian Air Force released the video – he did not mention the claims that Patriot was used in the aforementioned operation and was not asked about it by reporters. The sensitivity of using advanced weapons donated by the US to pursue targets on Russian territory may have been a significant factor.
Whatever the reason for the unequivocal confirmation, it should be noted that the Patriot system shot down the Russian aircraft from a long distance. As previously mentioned, one of the helicopters was reported to have been hit about 160 miles from the Ukrainian capital, where Ukraine’s foreign-supplied Patriot systems are primarily located. While it’s possible that a Patriot interceptor hit a target at that range, the likelihood of that happening was probably low, said David Shank, a retired Army colonel and former commander of the Army Air Defense Artillery School at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, told us. There is also the possibility that remote Patriot launchers were deployed to engage longer-range targets, Shank noted, while the system’s radar may have detected and tracked the targets before relaying the information to an air defense system much closer to Kiev .
US Patriot System. DoD
While Ukraine’s claims still cannot be confirmed by additional sources, it seems more likely than ever that Patriot was involved in the mass shooting that day, which would add further credit to its previous deployment in the war-torn country.