MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. Western surface-to-air missile systems have proved to be ineffective against Russian air strikes and air defense weapons in the special military operation in Ukraine, a source in Russia’s defense industry told TASS on Friday.

"The Ukrainian army’s attempts to limit the strikes by Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft with the help of Western-made surface-to-air missile systems are thwarted by Russian air defense weapons. In the course of the special military operation, combat crews of Russia’s air defense systems successfully intercept Western-manufactured surface-to-air missiles attacking Russian operational/tactical aircraft that carry out sorties to destroy the enemy on the ground and in the air," the defense source said.

Since late 2023, the Ukrainian army has been actively using interceptor missiles of S-200, SAMP/T and Patriot surface-to-air missile systems against Russian Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft, the source specified.

"Over the past 18 months, Russian air defense crews have intercepted nearly two dozen Western-made surface-to-air missiles attacking Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft at supersonic speeds of 870 m/s to 1,178 m/s (up to Mach 3.5)," the defense source said.

"Moreover, about a half of them were MIM-104D missiles of the US-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system," he said.

Russian S-400 air defense systems "demonstrate the highest efficiency in such intercepts," the defense source said.

"Systematic air intercepts of interceptor missiles in a combat environment with such efficiency have no analogues in the world history of air defense," the source stressed.