July 9, 2020
Is Russia's Plane-Killing S-400 Missile Really a Paper Tiger? Sweden Thinks So
Russia’s vaunted Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) capabilities in the Baltic region are overrated.
by Charlie Gao
Key Point: Russia's claims shouldn't be taken at face value. But neither should Sweden's.
In March 2019, the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI) published a report that alleges that Russia’s vaunted Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) capabilities in the Baltic region are overrated. It presents a technical and doctrinal argument for why Russian long-range missile capabilities, in the anti-air, anti-ship, and anti-land realms, may have been overstated in the media and in professional analysis.
One of the key systems the paper takes aim at is the Russian S-400 air defense system. It suggests that analysts in media have overblown the threat the S-400 poses by taking claims about its range at face value, namely the 400 km figure for the 40N6 missile, and by overstating the S-400’s ability to engage incoming missiles meant to suppress or kill it.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/russias-plane-killing-s-400-missile-really-paper-tiger-sweden-thinks-so-164380
