Storm In A Teacup, Or Rn Vs. Iran

[JasonJ]

Turkey S-400 might be activated before end of the year.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/10/29/turkeys-s-400-will-be-fully-operational-end-year-pentagon-official.html

 

Turkey and Russia in "advance stage" of negotiations for SU-35.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/10/28/turkey-russia-in-advanced-talks-on-potential-su-35-jet-deal/

[lucklucky]

Hitting commercial grade drones with S-400 any country will bankrupt in short term. Something akin the Israeli Iron Dome would be more feasible.

[Stuart Galbraith]

I was reading an interesting article the other day, saying the Russians had embedded virus's in radios they sold to the Ukraine prewar, which they activated via radio signals. You kind of wonder if they put any similar time bombs in S400.

[glenn239]

AFAIK, S-400 isn't currently designed to deal with swarms of commerical grade drones, but action in Syria is giving S-400 designers ample hands-on experience. In terms of embedding viruses in foreign equipment sales, the up side of that is that it might be tactically useful. The downside is that it can effect global arms sales. Probably best not to do any such thing in most cases. For example, Ukraine's S-300 force has been modernized with no apparent indication of viruses.

Edited November 4, 2019 by glenn239

[bojan]

S-400 is a part of the system. It is not equipped to deal with drones, cause lower levels (Tor and Pantsir) are.

[glenn239]

Russian doctrine should be in a state of flux on the question of low-performance drones. Combat experience in Syria will take some time to percolate. S-400 doctrine on over-the-horizon threats seems to be is to cue remote systems (Pantsir) to deal with the threat, or track the targets with aerial surveillance, or use electronic warfare to jam them. AWACS or MIG-31's are too expensive to keep on patrol 24 hours. But, low performance drones seem to demand low-performance (ie, cheap) solutions. A little 24-hour aloft air control drone with a little radar good for some number of miles against a drone size target might be completely useless against a missile or jet, but perfect for dealing with cheap drones. In which case, the S-400 system is suited to become the air traffic controller.

Edited November 4, 2019 by glenn239