S-300s Crowd The Coast

The Strategy Page ^ | 4/11/2010 | The Strategy Page

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Can the Russians place a S-300 on a Su-30? Again, placing a Patriot missile on a F-15 is rather technological feat.

[spetznaz]

No, they cannot place a S-300 on a fighter jet. However, they do not have to. It would be me saying that the T-72 is 'vastly superior' to the M1A2 because the T-72 can fire a missile from its gun while the Abrams can 'only' fire depleted Uranium armor piercing sabots. Sure, the 72 has a trick the Abrams does not have, however the Abrams is a far better system/weapon/defensive platform/battlefield asset than the T-72 could EVER be.

For ABM duties (and the S-300 and its predecesors went around some ABM treaties) the S-300 is good enough. Russia is not necessarily worried of fending off MRBMs from Iran and shooting them in their boost phase, or higher up when they are starting to come down. Thus they do not need to have S-300s on Flankers, even if they could fit. As for other longer range missiles for use on an air-to-air platform, they have some rather long sticks, particularly when it comes to anti-AWACS duties.

Vastly superior? No.