Myanmar commands the troubled Pantsir-S1 air defense system

Russian state media reported Friday that the Myanmar armed forces ordered a once formidable Pantsir-S1 air defense system (NATO report name SA-22 Greyhound).

The Russian state news agency TASS announced that the agreement was signed at a ceremony attended by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who is on an official visit to Myanmar, and the Commander in Chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, Min Aung Hlaing. Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin signed the deal for Russia.

The Pantsir-S1 mobile surface-to-air missile system (SAM) is Russia’s premier point air defense complex, which has been heavily criticized in recent years.

Pantsir-S1 truck-mounted air defense systems have both short-range surface-to-air missiles and 30mm automatic cannons and are designed to defend ground installations against a variety of weapons including fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, and precision -guided ammunition and unmanned aerial vehicles.

According to the CSIS Missile Defense Project, the Pantsir base system can deploy tactical aircraft with a maximum range of 20 km and an altitude of 10 km, subsonic cruise missiles with a range of 12 km and an altitude of 6 km, and high-speed aircraft. Ground missiles at a range of 7 km and an altitude of 6 km.

However, real combat experience in Syria, Yemen and Libya has shown that the Pantsir complex could not handle targets such as the unmanned Turkish Bayraktar TB2 aircraft.

Kısa ve orta menzilli Rus yapımı hava savunma sistemleri, Turk SİHA’larına karşı ne kadar etkili? pic.twitter.com/foGWZ8MROn

– Collision report (@clashreport) March 9, 2020

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed last year that at least 8 Russian-made, Russian-supplied Pantsir-S1 self-propelled combined missile-missile systems were destroyed in shells in the Syrian province of Idlib.

In addition, in early May 2019, the source in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, speaking on condition of anonymity, the Russian army and navy were dissatisfied with the Pantsir complex and were looking for absolutely new air defense systems.