Concentrated missile attacks will always threaten civilians, MP warns
REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Even if Ukraine had unlimited stocks of interceptor
missiles, by concentrating
fire on a single area, Russia will always be able to overload local Ukrainian
air defenses, MP and parliamentary Defense Committee chair Roman Kostenko told
NV Radio on May 28.
“For example, we understand what [SAM] launchers are — how many there are and where they’re placed,” Kostenko said.
“Reloading also takes time. The systems themselves have limits on range and on the area they can cover. So if they [the Russians] strike a place where only two launchers are positioned, even if there are 100 [interceptor] missiles in reserve, they simply will not be able to reload fast enough to shoot those missiles down.”
He said Iran used a similar approach against Israel, “understanding that everything takes time.”
“No country in the world can defend 100% against ballistic missiles,” he added.
High-value sites are usually protected by layered air defenses, he said, and the more launchers that have missiles ready to fire, the greater the chance of shooting incoming missiles down.
“There are many factors; you can’t point to just one. Of
course, if it’s a massed strike on one point, the likelihood that some missiles
will get through and not be intercepted increases. That is one tactic for
carrying out missile strikes.”
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