The expert explained why the Ukrainians are more afraid of their air defense than the Russian “Geran”

To increase the range of anti-aircraft missiles, the self-destruct mode is turned off

There is a lot of video evidence on social networks of how anti-aircraft missiles of Ukrainian air defense, including the American Patriot, fall on roads, cars, houses – literally on the heads of residents of Ukrainian cities. A young woman from Kiev recorded a video message with a proposal to remove the Patriot to Western Ukraine, so that the residents of Kiev could finally not be afraid that they would fly from their own air defense, which turned into a constant threat to their lives.

Why Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles explode not in the air, but on the ground, MK was told (on condition of anonymity) by a former air defense officer who once served in Ukraine.

– I still have many friends and relatives in Ukraine, – says the interlocutor of “MK”. – People are really afraid not so much of Russian missiles and drones – everyone has already understood that you do not hit civilian targets – but of your own air defense systems. Anti-aircraft missiles have repeatedly fallen on the streets and houses.

It is said that during our last massive night raid, the people barely slept. In Lviv, an air alert was announced at 2:46 local time, and the lights out was at 5:14. In Kyiv, the sirens turned on at one in the morning. Geraniums flew in the first wave. They tried to knock them down. Worked Ukrainian air defense. Ukrainian S-300s are very old, still Soviet ones. There are no such people in Russia anymore. The missiles for them have long served all the warranty periods, and it happens that they fly not at all where they are launched.

And now, the expert explains, Ukrainians are in serious danger because of the air defense systems that the West has installed. In order to increase the flight range, and in some cases increase the possibility of hitting targets, the self-destruction mode is deliberately turned off on the missiles of these complexes. As a result, the missiles that are supposed to protect the Ukrainians have become a real threat to them.

Any air defense missile is a kind of flying computer programmed for certain tasks, says the interlocutor of MK. If he works in the usual mode, then his program contains the following algorithm: if he doesn’t catch up, doesn’t destroy the assigned target, I’m leaving for self-destruction. In this case, the air defense missile explodes in the air and only its rather small fragments fall to the ground, which cannot cause much harm.

However, the self-destruct mode can be disabled. In this case, the range of the air defense missile will increase significantly. This is exactly what the Ukrainian air defense forces are doing, in the expectation that during this increased time, it may have time to detect and destroy some other target. And they turn off self-destruction not only on their old S-300 missiles, but also on those supplied by the West for their air defense systems. They do this in order to save money, since the supply of such missiles is limited.

As a result, it turns out that the rocket flies until it uses up all of its fuel supply. After that, it falls anywhere – on a house, a street, a playground, a track with cars … Videos with frames of just such situations now appear more and more in the Ukrainian segment of the Web. And this despite the fact that people who posted such evidence can be severely punished.

One interesting detail: the American edition of Military Watch Magazine (MWM) writes that when the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system transferred to Kiev tried to shoot down the Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile that destroyed it, it launched a volley of 32 missiles at once. It is already known that all of them, as they say, “gone into milk.” They could not catch up with the hypersonic “Dagger” – such a weapon does not yet exist in the world. So where did they fall?

Even if we imagine that the self-destruction system on them was not turned off, then the fragments of the “patriotic” rockets that exploded over Kiev could fill up half the city.

Judging by what footage of “arrivals” of air defense missiles, the people of Kiev are now posting on the Web, begging to remove both the Patriot and other complexes “standing on their defense” away, we can conclude: Patriot has caused great trouble to the residents of the Ukrainian capital.

But who in Kyiv will think about some residents there, if the main task of these complexes is to protect the president and the country’s leadership. Therefore, our interlocutor explains, the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not plan to change the tactics of using their defensive weapons, considering their negative impact on the security of citizens as just a minor side effect.