Friday, July 18, 2014

Russia's Buk Missile System - A Backgrounder

Updated October 2015

It is widely believed that Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was deliberately shot down.  In light of that, I wanted to take a look at the missile system that is likely responsible.

Let's open with a video showing the Buk surface-to-Air missile system:


The 93M38 Buk (which means "beech" in Russian) missile system, known as the SA-11 Gadfly in the West, was developed in Russia beginning in 1972 to replace the obsolete 2K12 Kub and SA-6 Gainful surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems.  The system was designed with a better ability to engage multiple targets and with improved countermeasures technology.  Keep in mind that during the Cold War, the Soviet Union had a vast airspace to defend; this meant that the Soviet Army had to keep a large collection of mobile surface-to-air missile platforms.  The new missile system was evaluated during the period from 1977 to 1979 and was formally cleared for service in 1980.   The system was designed around a missile that was powered by a solid propellant rocket motor that had an operational range of 20 miles and could defend airspace up to 46,000 feet.  Each missile weighs 700 kilograms and is 5.55 metres long.  The missile uses a semi-active homing guidance system and detonates through a radar-based proximity fuse.  The high-explosive used is located in the nose cone. 

As the decades passed, the missiles were updated, giving them the ability to protect themselves from enemy jamming signals that are intended to disrupt missile tracking and detonation.  The 9K37 weapons were credited with rowing four Georgian aerial drones during the fighting between Russia and Georgia in 2008 and the Georgian system was credited with downing four Russian aircraft.  Other nations that have the Buk system include North Korea, Egypt, Syria, Viet Nam, China, India and Venezuela.

A Buk missile battery consists of a command post vehicle which contains the missile battery's data display and control system and the fire-control computer, a target acquisition radar vehicle which is used to acquire potential aerial targets and transmit their position to the command post vehicle and one transporter erector launcher (TEL) vehicle, all of which are vehicle mounted.  The time to set up the system is around five minutes and the time from tracking to launch is about 22 seconds.  Each launcher is equipped with four radar-guided missiles.

Here's an interesting quote from Jane's:

"Although it has it own Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system, this is only able to establish whether the target being tracked is a friendly aircraft. It is the electronic equivalent of a sentry calling out "Who goes there?” If there is no reply, all you know is that it is not one of your own side's combat aircraft. It would not give you a warning that you were tracking an airliner." (my bold)


Here is a summary of the Buk anti-aircraft system with both SAM 9M38 and 9M317 missiles:



The loss of life in this tragedy is mind-numbing, particularly given that the passengers of Malaysian Airlines are collateral damage in a civil war that no one is winning. 

8 comments:

  1. well writen, i would like to underline, its a civil war, in ukraine

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  2. The biggest question is why did the plane divert north from the normal route instead of heading further south. There was supposedly a thunder storm that caused the route to be changed. But why fly into a war zone that numerous planes had been shot down in recent weeks? Who made that call? They are who is to blame for this.

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  3. My theories on what may have happened 1 most likely 3 least…1 Rebels either with captured equipment or equipment given to them by Russia shot down the plane. 2 Ukraine forces shot it down, this is less likely but also possible. The day before Ukraine accused Russia of shooting down a fighter jet(SU-25) from the air. So Ukraine looking for some payback may have been trying to shoot down a Russia fighter jet flying near the border. 3 Least likely but possible Russia either with an Air to Air missile or SAM (from the ground) shot the airliner. Russian forces should be able to tell military planes from civilian so this possibility is not likely but sometimes mistakes happen.

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    1. Rebels? May be... but why they gave black boxes? They could to say they do not found its. RU aircraft? For what? Russians wait for autumn when UA army will finish all they doing. Only for sanction against RU may be but ....

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  4. If we are surmising probable scenarios for explaining the attack on the Malaysian airliner, why not look to WHO WOULD GAIN from such an act? The most obvious "winner" is the Ukraine (an American puppet regime put in charge after overthrowing a democratically elected president - one of America´s standard foreign policy stategies for maintaining its Empire). Within HOURS, the Russians were being blamed and calls were going out to all the "allies" to finally earnestly join in the effort to isolate America´s enemy Russia, with AMERICAN intelligence announcing categorically that THEY KNEW the Russians did it - all the while never giving any reason why they would. This would seem especially important to establish considering that on the face of it such an attack could only have dire consequences for Russia. One could even surmise that shooting down the airliner would have further advantages for the US-Israel war mongers in that the world´s attention would also be diverted from the ongoing, slow-motion genocide taking place in township of Gaza! Just sayin....

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    1. American puppet regime - your an idiot for that comment. Lets talk about the Russian military running around in unmarked uniforms - not fooling anybody with a clue. Here is the scenario that is most viable: First what separatists have the training a capability to operate a SA-11 system - not some guy off the streets wanting independence. I would suspect those unmarked uniformed dudes with the expensive high tech weapons running around in eastern Ukraine leading and advising the separatists. My bet is they believed it was a Ukraine transport aircraft and hosed it not realizing it was a civilian aircraft. Didn't you see the original claims by the separatist leadership at first. And those Russian unmarked uniformed advisors got those SA-11 out of there in a heart beat as seen on numerous videos - one with 2 missiles missing from the TEL. So the reason why the Russian operators or advisors of the SA-11 shot down the airliner is my belief it was by accident (hopefully) thinking it was a military cargo plane. The comment about US-Israel war mongers shows and indicates that you don't have a clue - period.

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  5. American puppet regime - your an idiot for that comment. Its not that far fetched. Maybe not puppet but you better believe Poroshenko listens very closely to anything the US state dept. tells him. Who do you think pressed him to go back on the attack after the short term truce ended?

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  6. kiev and its mater of puppet dd it.The whole world is afraid of BULLY and willing to go alon with its liesthat led owad ww3Hee is what IDEALIST like Putin will do.Once He knows that there gonna be no TRUTH but LIES ,and He and Rui is punished for nothing,he will sell nucs t Iran,N.Korea,then e il instll nucs in Cuba and I tink He is going strike 1st.

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