These surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems are highly sophisticated and deadly pieces of equipment. Their loss will be keenly felt in Moscow and experts have been left scrambling to explain how forces in the south of the country caused such destruction. The mystery may have been answered earlier this week when US officials said they had supplied Ukraine with high-velocity anti-radiation missiles (HARMs). Little has been heard of this class of weapons so far in the war. That may change, as they will likely play a central role in any Ukrainian counterattack in the south.
Like something out of science fiction
Anti-radiation missiles sound like something out of science fiction. the response to a nuclear explosion perhaps, used to protect civilians from atomic Armageddon. Alas, missiles like the AGM-88 – believed to be the US-supplied weapon – do not work against this type of radiation. Instead, they are designed to tap into the radiated signals of ground-based SAM systems, searching the sky for incoming fighters. Left intact, SAM systems deny the force air superiority and make it more difficult to attack other ground targets, such as headquarters, airfields and ammunition depots. Destroying such sites, therefore, is a critical task in a military campaign and is called suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD). Ukraine wants to turn recent small counter-offensives around Kherson into a wider counter-offensive to take back swaths of territory and perhaps threaten Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea. To be successful, Kiev’s forces will need to own the skies, at least temporarily, so that they can provide close support to colleagues on the ground pushing forward. For the jets to operate smoothly, the SAM threat will first have to be eliminated or at least reduced, which is where the HARM missiles come in, which travel at around 2,300 km per hour and are therefore very difficult to shoot down.
