Russia deployed 46 “Iskander” air defense systems on the border with Ukraine – GUR
How this detail may affect the future format of strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure
As of now, the Russian army has deployed 46 launchers of the Iskander tactical missile system along the state border of Ukraine, which are used to strike our country with both ballistic missiles and R-500 cruise missiles, also known as Iskander-K.
Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said this during the Yalta European Strategy (YES) forum, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
At the same time, Skibitsky emphasized that “in this way (i.e., using Iskander systems – ed.), there is a methodical destruction of civilian objects of our state, first of all”.
Defense Express notes that this is the first time since Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine that the number of Iskander missile launchers deployed against our country has been known. And here the stated figure should be analyzed separately.
On the one hand, The Military Balance 2023 indicates that at the beginning of this year, the Russian army had a total of 150 launchers for the Iskander. In fact, this was an incomplete set for all 14 existing missile brigades, each of which was supposed to have 16 Iskander launchers, i.e. 208 complete launchers for 13 brigades and 226 complete launchers for 14 brigades.
In turn, 46 launchers are the incomplete equivalent of only three missile brigades. But here it is worth considering that, for example, according to the same DIU, at the end of August 2023, Russia had as many as 270 cruise and ballistic missiles for the Iskander, and planned to produce 30 ballistic and 12 cruise missiles for Iskanders in the same August.
For comparison, at the beginning of January 2023, Russia had only 144 ballistic and cruise missiles for the Iskander systems in stock. This, in turn, suggests that this winter the occupiers will probably use Iskanders more actively to strike at our energy and other civilian infrastructure of our country.
