MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. Israel’s armed forces managed to destroy one of the air defense systems Pantsyr-S in Syria only because the vehicle failed to move to a different position after firing the set of ammunition, the chief designer for air defense systems of the Shipunov Design Bureau of Instrument Engineering (an affiliate of High Precision Systems, Rostec corporation), Valery Slugin, told TASS in an interview.

On May 10, 2018 one of the Pantsyr-S vehicles of Syria’s air defense was destroyed by an Israeli guided missile, presumably launched by the anti-missile system Spike. A video of the attack was made public later.

Slugin said the Pantsyr-S had hit eight targets, for which it spent all ammunition. The combat crew left the vehicle and was waiting for the arrival of a transport and loader vehicle.

"It should not have been done by all means. The combat vehicle should have been removed from the firing position as soon as the set of ammunition had been spent. At once. Had that been done, everything would’ve been fine," Slugin claimed.

Pantsyr-S profile

The system Pantsyr-S is meant for close-range air defense of civilian and military facilities in any weather and radio-electronic situation round the clock. Pantsyr consists of twelve air defense guided missiles (six missiles in two transportation and launch containers). Also, Pantsyr is armed with two fast firing 30 mm guns.