Syria's Buk-M2 transforms to intercept series of Israeli missiles
After being quietly upgraded by Russia, Syria's Buk-M2 has just made a great achievement when it shot down a series of missiles attacked by the Israeli air force near Damascus airport.
Information about the interception was reported by Syria's HAMA news agency citing local military sources, saying that a series of bright spots and loud explosions were heard in the air near Damascus International Airport when fighter jets launched missiles to attack near the area.
But it is not yet clear how many Israeli missiles were intercepted or what damage there was on the ground from the attack.
However, Israel has remained silent on the statement published by the Syrian news agency.
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| Syrian air defense opened fire. |
It is known that the attack on the night of September 15 was the second time this month that the Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes on targets in Syrian territory at night.
Tel Aviv has attacked several targets around Damascus International Airport, causing Syrian air defenses to strain to cope.
And the great achievement in the airstrike on the night of September 15 was the Buk-M2 air defense system after it was quietly upgraded by Russia and transferred to Syria for operation.
Al-Masdar News reported that as soon as the radar signal warned of an incoming missile attack, the entire air defense network in the area was alerted and ready to fire when the target was locked shortly after.
It is unclear how many missiles the Israeli fighter jets used, but only three interceptor missiles from the Buk-M2 system were launched, and the results were beyond expectations when two missiles were intercepted.
It is known that before stopping this attack, at the end of 2017, this same Buk-M2 system stunned the Israeli air force when it successfully intercepted 4 out of a total of 5 missiles weighing up to 1.36 tons each attacking Damascus International Airport.
Immediately after the interception, fragments of the intercepted missile were scattered across the al Keshwah area near the town of al Zariqiyeh, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus. The intercepted missile was later identified as a Popeye, an Israeli-made version of the US AGM-142 Raptor medium-range air-to-surface missile.
According to the Russian manufacturer, it is no coincidence that the Buk-M2 can easily destroy these difficult-to-intercept targets, because the Buk-M2 is designed to intercept most aerodynamic targets, including ballistic missiles.
The missile complex has a range of 3 - 50 km, target altitude of 10 m to 25 km, and can shoot down 24 targets at the same time.
To be able to complete the above mission, the Buk-M2 system is designed with target search radar and fire control radar, both equipped with phased array antennas, microprocessors, and digital control computers, helping the Buk-M have very high combat performance.
Specifically, the probability of destroying F-15 fighters is 90 - 95%, ground-attack cruise missiles is 70 - 80%, ballistic missiles are 60 - 70%, helicopters and UAVs are over 90%. However, in actual combat, the Buk-M2's target interception success rate is much higher.
