Aliaksandr Alesin: S-300 needed for protection against “teddy bear dropouts”

Belarus upgrades its low altitude air defence systems.

Military observer Aliaksandr Alesin spoke to charter97.org about the supplies of additional four S-300 missile systems to Belarus.

“Belarus received the previous portion of S-300 missile systems in 2007 under the agreement of 2005-2006. They were to strengthen Belarus's air defence. As I remember, 67 S-125 launchers were withdrawn upon the S-300 delivery. Belarus has two regiments of rather old S-200 systems, which used to be good. They were designed to target high-altitude aircraft like V-52 and AWACS. But we have a revolution in aerial threats – now low-altitude UAVs, cruise missiles and guided bombs are widely used. Lukashenka expressed a desire to get more missile systems just after the previous ones had been deployed. There was a long discussion, but some days after the teddy bear incident, Pakhmelkin said Russia promised four more systems. I think the case of breaching the air defence demonstrated its weakness. Unlike S-300, S-200 systems cannot be used against such targets as low-altitude light planes. The supplies were arranged long ago, but they were postponed several times. The teddy bear dropout accelerated the process,” the observer summed up.

We remind that Russia's minister of defence Sergei Shoigu said Belarus would receive four S-300 missile systems in the nearest future.

Photo: ITAR-TASS