Maya Carlin
President Donald Trump had ordered the cessation of U.S. military aid to Ukraine in February, following a heated Oval Office argument with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before later reversing his decision. This caused quite a stir, since Ukraine depends on deliveries of advanced Western-supplied weapons, including lethal unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Storm Shadow/Scalp missiles and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), to penetrate some of Moscow’s most sophisticated surface-to-air (SAM) missile systems like the S-500 “Prometheus.” At the tail end of 2024, Russia’s armed forces formed its first full regiment equipped with these long-range air defense systems, marking a significant milestone for the cutting-edge asset.
An overview of the S-500
The history of the Prometheus SAM is linked directly to the Soviet-era S-300 project. During the Cold War, the Soviet Air Defense Forces required a SAM system capable of defending against air raids and cruise missiles in the U.S. arsenal. Soviet manufacturer NPO Almaz produced the S-300 to fulfill this need in the late 1970s. Over the years, several sub-variants of the S-300 were produced, with the latest being the Antey-2500. With a range of 350km, according to Russian state-run media outlets, the system has “high tactical and technical characteristics that allow it to use it for air defence of the most important administrative, industrial and military facilities, troop groups, coastal infrastructure and naval forces at stationing site.”
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