MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. Russian troops using S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs), shot down 10 Ukrainian MiG-29 fighters from over-the-horizon ranges in one day in 2023, according to an article co-authored by Chief of the Air Defense Missile Forces of the Russian Aerospace Forces Major General Alexander Romanenkov, published in the Russian Defense Ministry’s journal Voyennaya Mysl (Military Thought).
"The results of the first over-the-horizon firing of the S-400 Triumf air defense system in 2023 were indeed triumphant, when 10 Ukrainian MiG-29s were shot down in a day, and 24 aircraft in a week (the types not specified)," says the article entitled "Characteristics of Anti-Aircraft Missile Troops’ Maneuvering in Military Conflict Conditions with Due Regard to the Special Military Operation Experience."
According to the article, the tactic of using SAM systems, when long-range SAM launchers with the capability to fire "over the horizon" are deployed in "ambushes," <…> "has certainly been thoroughly analyzed by the enemy, and it will hardly be possible to achieve such high results using this method in the future, but there is no doubt that, having such capabilities, it is necessary to deploy launchers towards the enemy so that its aircraft, as soon as they take off, fall into the SAM fire zones."
In October 2023, then-Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu stated that Russian troops had received the systems, which had shot down 24 Ukrainian aircraft in five days.
About S-400 Triumf
The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) is a Russian long-and medium-range air defense missile system. It is designed to destroy air attack and reconnaissance means (including stealth aircraft) and any other aerial targets amid intensive counter-fire and jamming. The system became operational with the Russian Armed Forces in 2007.