Russian Iskander Missile Strike Destroys Patriot Air Defence System Guarding Dnepropetrovsk

New drone footage fromnear the Ordzhonikidze settlement in the Dnepropetrovsk region has shown the destruction of multiple key components of an MIM-104 Patriot long range surface-to-air missile system operated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, after it was successfully targeted by Russian forces using the Iskander-M ballistic missile system. The strike took place approximately 100 kilometres behind the frontlines, at a time when Russian forces in the region have made significant advances. Commenting on the strike, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed that the Patriot system’s AN/MPQ-65 multifunctional radar station, the combat control cabin, and missile launch vehicles, were all destroyed. The Iskander-M system was developed specifically to be able to evade detection or targeting by systems such as the Patriot, with its 9K720 missiles using semi-ballistic depressed trajectories, and being able to conduct extensive in flight manoeuvres throughout their flight paths. The systems have been used extensively to target Ukrainian air defence systems in the past.

Ukraine first received Patriot systems delivered by Germany and the Netherlands in mid-April 2023, with further units being delivered by the United States later that month. As Western arsenals have been increasingly depleted, however, the ability to replenish Ukraine’s air defences has become increasingly strained. Patriot systems are considered the most high value pieces of military hardware operated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which makes them particularly lucrative targets for Russian precision strikes. The Iskander-M system was first confirmed to have been used to successfully target a Patriot system on February 23, 2024, with a subsequent strike using the Iskander-M confirmed by drone footage to have largely destroyed Ukrainian Patriot system near the Sergeevka locality in the disputed Donetsk regionon March 10 that year. The attack, and closely coinciding Iskander-M strikes on Ukraine’s Soviet-built S-300 air defence systems, were assessed to have left ground forces in the region far more exposed, with the neutralisation of the systems thus serving as a force multiplier for Russian forces in the region launching further attacks.

In the second week of July, 2024, new footage confirmed the destruction of two batteries from a Patriot system near the settlement Yuzhnoye in the Odessa region using Iskander-M systems, as well as a nearby Giraffe radar station. On August 11 three more surface-to-air missile batteries and an AN/MPQ-65 radar were reported to have been destroyed in Iskander-M strikes. Footage released on August 17 showedthe destruction of three batteries in the Lyubimovka settlement in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, after a single 9K720 missile from an Iskander-M system deployed cluster warheads against them. The Patriot is exported for approximately $2.5 billion per system, withthe destruction of large numbers of systems using relatively low cost ballistic missile assets depleting Ukraine’s overall value in Western-supplied weaponry at a low cost to Russian forces. Russian forces’ ability to neutralise Patriot systems have caused serious concerns both within NATO, where the United States, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Romania and Sweden all rely on the systems, as well as further afield such as in Northeast Asia as Japan, South Korea and the Republic of China all depend the system or locally produced derivatives for their defence.