Now, as promised, we'll discuss the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities. The Russian MFA urges not to make premature conclusions without a thorough investigation, not to claim someone responsible in advance, and especially not to use any adverse news from the Middle East to put pressure on Tehran. Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov shares this point of view. At the same time, there's fresh news from American media referring to some sources in the Pentagon. They say that the lack of facts didn't prevent the U.S. from planning a full-fledged military operation against the Islamic republic.
Now, they allegedly changed their mind, as Donald Trump used to do, at the last moment. Or they just stoke tension as they usually do, by using fake news. Or they really listened to the Yemeni Houthi insurgents, who not only openly claimed responsibility for the attack but also told in detail which weapons they used. They say that they used a few cruise missiles in addition to drones. Now, we want just to understand how this airborne armada managed to get past American anti-aircraft defense systems in the Arabian kingdom without difficulty.
Evgeny Tishkovets tried to figure that out.
- Hello, Evgeny.
- Good evening.
- Does it mean that the overhyped Patriot turned out to be useless?
- Alexey, you're correct. We should note that it isn't the first time that it has happened.
Of course, cruise missiles are the main targets of missile systems. The Patriot is an expensive system. It costs $3 million to launch one missile. The Pentagon even pointed out that using missile systems to hit UAVs means using a golden cannon to hit sparrows. But the Patriot doesn't always hit casual targets. Last year, the producers of the system embarrassed themselves during the missile attack on Saudi Arabia's facilities by Yemeni insurgents. They failed to launch several Patriot missiles, which exploded right on the ground. Some missiles exploded at super-low altitudes, and one Patriot returned to the launch site and destroyed the system that launched it.
It's a small wonder that Houthi UAVs are invisible to the Patriot. The missile systems didn't react to the attack in May by UAVs on a bulk plant in Saudi Arabia and didn't protect the Yemeni government's military base, backed by the coalition headed by Saudi Arabia. In January, it was attacked from the air during a parade. Six people were killed.
Not long ago, Yemeni insurgents stated that they produce one drone per day. This is a programmable UAV with a warhead of up to 45 kilograms (100 lbs) of TNT. Its blast radius is 150 meters (500 feet). The drone is pretty fast. Its maximum speed is up to 320 kph (200 mph). How did UAVs manage to pass unnoticed by the anti-aircraft defense system? A few factors contributed to that. One of them is that the system is cumbersome and slow.
Yury Knutov, military historian: “The control over airspace is carried out over certain territories. As soon as targets are detected, the staff in Western Germany gets the information. They process it and select a division or company, which can open fire. German headquarters transfer information to another satellite, a third one, which assigns targets to the missile guidance station. So this system is quite time-consuming and complex. This isn't just seconds but dozens of seconds wasted while launching this system.”
But the main thing is that due to its characteristics, the Patriot can't work at super-low altitude. Its missile can't descend to lower than 50 meters (160 foot) in altitude. At the same time, a UAV is easily programmable for a flight at an altitude as low as 15 meters (50 feet), with terrain following taken into consideration. Thus, the Yemeni Houthis used several drones to bring the missile systems out of operation. They just hit their radars, or phased-array antennae, to be exact.
Mikhail Lipatov, UAV developer: "The Patriot can't detect anything below 50 meters (160 feet) in altitude, so there are standard, well-practiced tactics. They're either using a smart shell, which flies following the terrain, or optical aimpoint guidance systems. Even if radio countermeasures are taken, a drone could go undetected".
How can a drone be programmed so precisely? The answer is simple. In the modern world, information is easily obtained from map data sources. For example, there are no access restrictions to the whereabouts of the Patriot battery in Riyadh. Those are the curious details that I have.
- Thank you. That was Evgeny Tichkovets on the drone attack.
