The Russian Armed Forces destroyed Ukrainian Tochka-U rocket launchers with Iskander missiles on Friday. In the course of the operation, the Russian army is actively using ground, air and even sea-based missiles. For example, the Yavoriv test site near Lviv was attacked from the Black Sea. These high-precision weapons make it possible to effectively destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure without affecting civilian objects.
Russian air defense assets repelled a missile strike by Ukrainian forces at Melitopol, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. "On the night of March 18, Tochka-U missiles with cluster warheads struck residential neighborhoods in the city of Melitopol from territory controlled by the Kiev nationalist regime. Russian air defense assets repelled the missile attack on civilians in the city," a Defense Ministry spokesman said. According to Konashenkov, the shelling came from the northern direction - from the southeastern outskirts of Zaporizhzhya.
The Defense Ministry spokesman added that the Russian military had detected the coordinates of the launch of Ukrainian ballistic missiles. In order to stop further attacks, they destroyed the nationalists' installations with two Iskander missiles.
The positions of the Ukrainian Tochka-U missile launchers were located near Zaporizhzhia airport. The Iskander strike destroyed not only Tochka-U missiles, but also nearby ammunition depots, which could presumably contain other Tochka-U missiles. The Ukrainian mobile launchers went to Zaporizhzhya and further to Khmelnitsky region for reloading.
Military expert Yuri Knutov explained that the Iskanders are several times more advanced than Tochka-U. "This missile does not fly along a ballistic trajectory like the Tochka-U missile, but is guided directly during the flight, and there is a hundred percent hit on the target," said the interlocutor.
The Tochka tactical missile systems are the "grandfathers" of the Iskander systems, adopted by the Soviet Army in 1975. The missile system (Tochka-U) can be a nuclear weapon carrier. Initially the declared range was 120 kilometers, but it was gradually increased to 500 kilometers. The complex is in service with missile brigades. Until March 13, 2022, 14 to 16 Ukrainian missiles of this type were shot down during a special operation, two of which were over Russian territory.
"Tochka" has several types of ammunition, including fragmentation, cluster and nuclear. Cluster shells are used to defeat manpower and lightly armored vehicles. Their warhead contains 50 fragmentation warheads. "Before the start of the special operation in Ukraine, there were about 800 missiles and 90 launchers for the Tochka-U complexes," Knutov pointed out. - "Therefore, Russia is tasked with disabling or destroying these launchers and missiles. Which, in fact, has been successfully carried out - in this case, by the Iskander complex. To detect and destroy the launched Tochka-U missiles, the Pantsir-S, Tor, and Buk self-propelled anti-aircraft missile and cannon systems could be used, the military expert added.
Knutov suggested: "the "clipping" of the Tochka-U coordinates that Konashenkov spoke of was carried out by a Russian drone or a reconnaissance group. But the location could have been determined from outer space as well - the special operation employs a satellite constellation capable of detecting, among other things, movement of the launchers. It is not ruled out that in this case it was also possible to detect the position of Ukrainian missiles in seconds and destroy it efficiently.
In any case, as military experts note, the strike against Tochka-U near Melitopol was the first officially confirmed case of Iskander use, although it is possible that these systems have been used in the operation in Ukraine before. Experts consider the Iskander strike to be an adequate response to Ukraine's inadequate use of Tochka-U. This weapon of mass destruction, a potential carrier of nuclear warheads is used by the Ukrainian military completely indiscriminately. In Melitopol, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces wanted to use Tochka-U missiles on, there is no accumulation of Russian troops; there is a Rosgvardiya garrison there, which is mainly engaged in distributing humanitarian aid and establishing peaceful life.
According to experts, the Iskander point-blank strike was another illustration of the fact that the so-called long arm plays a decisive role in the special operation in Ukraine - missile weapons make the combat tasks of ground units much easier.
"Calibers and Iskanders are used primarily to strike control points, means and infrastructure for military communications and other objects, the former head of anti-aircraft missile troops of the Air Force Special Purpose Command and military expert Sergei Khatylev explained to VZGLYAD newspaper.
"The defeat must be carried out accurately so as not to damage the civilian infrastructure of cities, settlements, and dams.
At the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, strikes were primarily directed at command, control and communications posts, airfields, and high-precision weapons storage facilities," the former anti-aircraft missile chief noted.
High-precision long-range weapons purposefully destroy military infrastructure, including deep behind enemy lines. For example, on the second day of the special operation the sea-based Kalibr missiles hit the military airfield Kulbakino near Nikolayev, where the Turkish strike UAVs Bayraktar were based and at the same time a large fuel and lubricants warehouse was liquidated. Konashenkov gave a fresh example at a briefing on Friday: "The strike destroyed a parking lot with Ukrainian combat aircraft at an aircraft repair plant in Lviv, as well as ammunition and Ukrainian military equipment depots in the suburbs of Mykolaiv and Voznesensk." Recall also the strikes that destroyed two military facilities near the border with Poland - the training center in Starichi and the Yavorivsky training ground, which was recently actively mastered by Ukraine's NATO partners.
The Pentagon estimates that during the special operation about a thousand rockets have already been fired, Khatylev added. But, the military expert noted, the Pentagon's figures on Russian missile strikes may not be accurate. "Just two days ago, the Pentagon said that Russia had fired 800 missiles and that supplies were running out. They say we have nothing left to fight with and so forth. But two days have passed and we have everything, the operation goes on," said the expert. The operation would not have started without the accumulation of materiel, without the creation of operational and tactical and strategic stockpiles, Khatylev added. "To date, a certain set of missiles has been fired. The supply of ammunition, other forces and means to the places of application is being organized," Khatylev concluded.
According to him, the defeat of targets by missiles of different classes, including Kalibras and Iskander, depends on the range of combat application. "The approach has to be comprehensive. Therefore, there is no difference between engaging targets solely with artillery or solely with aviation. The whole design of combat use, especially high-precision weapons, is that it is organized in the interaction of naval forces, ground forces, airborne troops and air force," stressed the interlocutor.
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