US secretly took a Russian mobile air-defense missile system

By Boyko Nikolov

LONDON, (BM) – A secret military operation to transport a Russian mobile anti-aircraft missile system led to its acquisition by the US military, the British The Times reported in an article. Panzer-C1 was captured on the Libyan battlefield and taken intact to a US military base in Germany.

The US military and its Atlantic partners and the Western-backed government in Libya have jointly organized a covert operation to transport the system. Russia’s Paintsir-C1 can shoot down civilian and military aircraft. The Americans feared that the system could fall into the hands of militias or arms smugglers.

According to Times reporters, a C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft was transporting the system to Germany. The Pentagon’s military experts should study the design features in detail. It is not yet clear which specific forces and units were involved in the covert operation.

Paintsir-C1 suffered heavy damage during the last military clashes in Libya and Syria last year. The Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, had a dozen such systems, but Turkish Bayraktar drones proved “deadly effective” against them.

9 Russian “Pantsir-S1” systems been destroyed in Libya

As a result of the military operation “Volcano of Wrath” conducted by the army of the Government of National Accord (GNA) of Libya, nine Russian-made Pantsir anti-aircraft missile-cannon systems (ZRPK) had destroyed. Libyan Government reported this in the operation’s press center, says the Turkish agency Anadolu last year.

According to the headquarters, GNA destroyed the complexes in four days. They belonged to the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

Also, several cases of the destruction of the “Pantsir” had reported separately. So, in May last year, BulgarianMilitary.com, referring to the press center of the GNA army’s operation, said that one of the air defense missile systems destroyed by a Turkish drone. Another “Pantsir” earlier in May was captured by GNA forces at Al-Vatiya airbase near Tripoli, from where they managed to dislodge parts of the Haftar army.

Pantsir-S1 missile systems are useless

Russian-made Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile-cannon systems [ZRPKs] used in Libya are useless against Turkish operational-tactical multi-purpose unmanned aerial systems Bayraktar TB2 learned BulgarianMilitary.com citing the Russian Zvezda newspaper.

The weekly writes that the modification of this ZRPK and its export version used by Russia’s Armed forces are different. In particular, the second is equipped only with an optical control system. Simultaneously, the first has a three-coordinate target detection station with a semi-active phased array antenna and a dual-band centimeter-millimeter radar tracking system for targets and missiles.

“Infrared channels in various ranges are used to track targets and missiles. Radar and optoelectronic devices make up a single system and can operate in different wavelengths,” the newspaper writes, recognizing that Russian-made air defense missile systems “are only poorly adapted to combat targets such as Turkish Bayraktar TB2.”

The weekly notes that the Turkish drone strikes with precision weapons from four or more kilometers and can barrage for a long time at high altitude, which “significantly complicates its detection by the optical-electronic station ZRPK.”

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