Ukraine no longer has missiles for its two Samp/T batteries - Le Monde
Ukrainian air defence is facing growing challenges: a shortage of missiles for SAMP/T and Crotale, as well as changes in Russian attack tactics, are leading to a decrease in the effectiveness of repelling attacks.
According to Censor.NET, Le Monde writes about this.
According to an unnamed source, Ukraine no longer has missiles for its two SAMP/T batteries, and it "has not received a single missile in a year and a half" for the Crotale short-range anti-aircraft system.
The publication notes that the defence of Ukrainian territory is becoming increasingly difficult. The growing number of projectiles, their heterogeneity (drones, cruise and ballistic missiles) and the complexity of the routes they follow are exhausting the capabilities of Ukraine's air defence.
For example, according to the report, as recently as 2024, Ukraine's air defence managed to shoot down more than 90% of enemy drones, but now this figure has fallen to 30% in some places. The reason for this is simultaneous attacks by heterogeneous means of destruction: drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as the constant improvement of Russian "Shahed" drones.
The deputy commander of the "Yakut" unit, which consists of 23 mobile groups and protects the skies over Odesa region, noted that since January, Shaheds have been flying at an altitude of 2,000 to 3,000 metres instead of 200 metres, making them impossible to hit with small arms.
"When they dive at speeds of over 500 km per hour, it is very difficult to hit them," he explained.
The newspaper noted that these drones, originally supplied by Tehran to Moscow, are now mass-produced near the Russian city of Kazan. They carry three times the payload - 90 kg - with different types of explosives: fragmentation, submunitions, incendiary or thermobaric.
"The Russians are also innovating, and they have more resources at their disposal. They have just launched five samples of a new type of missile in our area, which they call "Banderol"," said 34 year-old Artem, a commander of a 30-soldier anti-aircraft missile battery stationed in southern Ukraine.
He said the Russians are using increasingly complex trajectories when programming their drones and cruise missiles. Sometimes they scatter in the sky and then regroup again. They also use a lot of physical and electronic decoys. The idea is to deplete our ammunition and saturate our capabilities.
Artem's unit, armed with a battery of Nasams surface-to-air missile systems equipped with American missiles and Soviet-made S-300 air defence systems, also deploys numerous decoys on the ground to mislead the enemy.
However, he said, in order to meet the growing challenges, "we need a lot more long-range systems like Patriot, Iris-T and SAMP/T. At the moment, we have nothing. Today we have nothing to protect the south of Ukraine from missiles.
According to Le Monde's source, Ukraine no longer has missiles for the two SAMP/T batteries, and "has not received a single missile for the Crotale short-range air defence system in a year and a half.
What is known about the SAMP/T complex?
SAMP/T is a ground-based air defence missile system that uses Aster family missiles. The system was developed by the European consortium Eurosam, formed by MBDA Italy, MBDA France and Thales.
SAMP/T is designed to provide air defence for mechanised units, as well as air cover for important fixed installations against massive attacks by a wide class of air targets, including aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles.
SAMP/T can destroy enemy aircraft at ranges from 3 km to 100 km and ballistic missiles at ranges from 3 km to 25 km, with a kill height of up to 25 km. All 8 Aster 30 missiles on a single launcher can be fired in a single salvo in 10 seconds.
