PLA Anti-Air Missile (SAM) systems
- Thread starter FORBIN
- Start date
Unless they just sat on their hands since the base HQ-9, the later B/C/19 variants should do about the same things, maybe with more ABM focus and less anti stealth.
S400 is of interest because it is hyped as THE anti stealth aircraft system and it’s range sounds a little too good to be true. They’ll probably want to see if it really shoot down a 5gen at the claimed ranges, how it performs under EW conditions etc.
There is also some political statement as well. They were to be inducted almost at the same time as Russia itself would. So it is like US delivering F35 to Israel early, they don’t necessary have a huge reason to want them, it’s meant to send a signal.
And apparently they left 6 regiments for just 3 billion $ while India is getting 5 for 6 billion $... so that’s some sort of statement as well
mwanamwale
New Member
Some people have suggested that since the incident occurred off the British coast, it was some kind of covert Britt. Opp to get a look into the S400
Hyperwarp
Captain
antiterror13
Brigadier
I think having multiple long range SAM would complicate the enemies significantly. Imagine HQ-9B, HQ-19, S-300PMU and now S-400 ... only a mad general would try to penetrate deep inside Chinese airspace
plawolf
Lieutenant General
But it was said to be due to a nasty storm
The two are not mutually exclusive. A storm would be perfect cover for a black ops mission.
However, the Russians are not fools, and should be well aware of the risks of such attempts, so should have corresponding security measures in place. The easiest would be not to store the missiles on deck where a pair of bolt cutters and some shoving might be all that is needed to send them overboard.
However, we must also consider the risks and costs of such a mission.
Getting commandos onto a moving ship in a storm unnoticed is going to be quite some challenge.
Same could be said for further breaching Russian security to get at the missiles.
That is a classic low probability of success mission.
Now weigh up the risks and costs of getting caught.
These are Russians, escorting top secret missiles, so odds are they are going to shoot first and ask question later if they spot intruders.
How well would a bunch of dead SAS commandos on a Russia ship in international waters play in the world? It would be far worse if said dead SAS commandos killed some of the Russian crew and/or security detail in the firefight.
That’s at best state sponcered piracy, and worst an open act of war.
On the other end of the equation is China, who the British are pinning a huge amount of hope on for their post-Brexit economic survival.
Needless to say, Beijing would not be impressed with such tempering of their newly purchased missiles.
Finally, we need to consider the prize.
These are export missile, and so would be different from what the Russians are using themselves.
What-more, the Russians have helpfully shipped a domestic S400 battery to Syria.
Why go to the risk and trouble to trying to steal export missiles when western intelligence could instead try and get the real McCoy Russian domestic signals by provoking a response from the sets in Sgrow instead?
D
Deleted member 13312
Guest
The storm is a complete accident by stroke of misfortune, but I will be very surprised if the British are not going to attempt to salvage some of those SAMs. Even if it is an export variant, it still represents a newer weapons system not accquired by the West before.