18 October 2024

Russian Iskander-M Obliterates Recklessly Deployed Ukrainian Patriot Battery; RuMoD Releases Footage

Vijainder K Thakur

According to the RuMoD, a crew of an Iskander ballistic missile system fired missiles at the Patriot SAM battalion’s positions near Pashena Balka in the Dnepropetrovsk region.

“The strike engaged a multifunctional AN/MPQ-65 radar, an AN/MSQ-104 engagement control station, launcher of the Patriot SAM system, and manpower of the AFU AD battalion. Another launcher of the Patriot SAM system was damaged.”

Pashena Balka is around 250 km from possible Iskander-M launch points within Russian territory.

Objective Control Footage

The incident and the object control footage released by the RuMoD are suggestive of a systemic malaise in the Ukrainian armed forces.

Ukraine appears to be throwing caution to the wind with its limited inventory of Patriot MIM-104 missile systems. It deploys them within easy reach of Russian Iskander missiles with little or no effort to camouflage their locations. The Ukrainian forces appear focused on sporadic headline victories instead of an inexorable pushback of Russian forces.

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