Russian air defense is kind of useless when it has to be kept off most of the time.
It’s a theme I keep hearing and it seems to fit the facts on the ground...and water.
The Moskva had ample air and missile defenses yet two missiles hit it and destroyed it anyway. Some folks at the time said the practice in the Russian navy was to only use certain equipment when it was needed in order to preserve its service life.
Since then I keep seeing video of Russian air defense systems and vehicles getting hit by missiles and logically these should be the hardest targets to destroy...if they’re active.
All I can imagine is that unless the Russians have some sort of forewarning of an attack that they keep their AA systems turned off.
It’s either this or even the discarded NATO weaponry being sent to Ukraine so outclasses the Russian AA gear that it makes the Russian defenses irrelevant.
Just being kind to our local franchise of the FSB I’m going to say the Russian gear is being left off most of the time.
Kind of a silly practice in a war zone. But if the Russians can’t keep up a 24/7/365 tempo then it makes sense.
They have to keep the radars off. They don’t trust their system to be successful, and certain missiles are designed to specifically aim for whatever is emitting the most EMR. so by leaving it on, you broadcast your location and make the radar a prime target. So they’ll mostly only use it when they know stuff is in the air, already aimed at something else.