Russian TOR, Buk SAMs Shoot Down Cruise Missiles Flying Below 10M Altitude

The Russian Ministry of Defense has claimed that the military’s TOR and Buk surface-to-air missile systems shot down cruise missiles flying at altitudes below 10 meters at a recent exercise.

The “Layered air defense exercise” was held at Astrakhan region. Adjutant target complexes, having a wide range of simulators of air attack weapons from helicopters to cruise missiles, were used. “During the drills, anti-aircraft gunners destroyed more than 30 air single and group targets at an altitude of 8 meters to 35 km, while missile launches were made at a range of 3 to 50 km,” the ministry said.

During Kavkaz-2020 drills, the Russian military tested Pantsir-S system to intercept targets flying at extremely low altitudes of 50m.

At the first stage of the exercise, the S-300V4 long-range anti-aircraft missile systems battalions repelled the strike of aeroballistic missiles, carrying out combat launches at targets descending from an altitude of more than 200 km.

At the second stage, the combat crews of the Buk-M3 medium-range air defense systems and the Tor-M2 short-range anti-aircraft missile systems battalions, after performing combat missile launches, repelled the attack of the imaginary enemy cruise missiles flying at altitudes less than 10 meters, the MoD said in a statement.

The Buk-M3 air defense missile system hit targets at a distance of up to 40 km, and the Tor-M2 short-range anti-aircraft missile systems battalions, in turn, performed combat launches at air targets at a range of up to 15 km.