MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Advanced Russian naval radars and ground-based anti-aircraft missile systems can detect US Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles while air defense complexes operational in Russia’s Army are capable of intercepting these weapons, Editor-in-Chief of the Military-Technical Cooperation magazine Dmitry Litovkin told TASS on Monday.
"If we speak about the interception capabilities, we can pinpoint Harpoon by all modern ship-based radar stations and ground-based air defense systems. The Russian Army operates a whole range of surface-to-air missile systems that can intercept aerial targets at ranges varying from 3 km to 400 km: namely, the Pantsyr-S, Tor, Buk and long-range S-300, S-400 complexes. All of them are capable of spotting and wiping out Harpoons," the expert said.
This does not mean that the Harpoon missile cannot reach its target, he pointed out.
"Missiles of this class pose a real danger due to the flight’s low-altitude profile and now also due to the possibility of the homing warhead’s modification," he elaborated.
The Harpoon is actually a rival of the Russian Kh-35 cruise missile and the Ukrainian Neptune weapon developed by the Kiev-based Luch Design Bureau as a derivative of the Kh-35 but with one distinctive feature, the expert explained.
"This primarily pertains to the homing warhead. In the 1990s, the Americans were eager to buy the Russian-Ukrainian homing warhead. The point is that, as compared to other cruise missiles scanning the space to ferret out the target, the Kh-35 flies in a ‘deaf mode,’ receiving signals from the target of the attack. Moreover, it seems to have been upgraded to operate in a swarm as compared to the Ukrainian model," Litovkin said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on July 8 that sea-launched precision weapons had eliminated two Harpoon missile launchers in the Odessa Region delivered from Great Britain.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov said on June 9 that the coastal defense line had been bolstered by "highly efficient Harpoon complexes." US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on June 15, following a Brussels meeting of the Contact Group on Military Assistance to Kiev set up by Western countries that a new aid package for Ukraine included two Harpoon missile launchers.
Harpoon anti-ship missiles
The Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles were developed by McDonnel Douglas, based in the US, in the 1970s-1980s and are currently manufactured at Boeing’s production facilities. The missiles are manufactured in three versions: AGM-84 air-launched, RGM-84 ship-launched and UGM-84 undersea-launched weapons.
The missile develops a subsonic speed and can carry a 225 kg warhead. The Harpoon has an operational range of 120 km to 280 km, depending on more than 10 modifications available at present.
Military experts estimate that the Harpoon missile is one of the most successful weapons developed in its category. The RGM-84D can alter its flight direction at low altitudes, which makes it possible to employ it in closed water areas and around islands to conceal the true direction of its launch.
The US-made Harpoon anti-ship missiles are used in the armed forces of nearly 30 countries, and among them are NATO member states, the UAE, Pakistan, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Israel, Chile and India.