Member-only story
Ukrainian Special Forces Just Wrecked a Pricey Russian Air Defense System and a Rare Rocket Launcher, Too
Drones first, HIMARS next — Ukraine’s special forces aren’t missing
The following article is based on the most current information available at the time of publication. As news develops, updates may be necessary. Readers are encouraged to verify details from official sources.
Ukrainian special forces pulled off a textbook strike that took out two of Russia’s more valuable battlefield assets, one of them rare, both of them expensive, and neither of them coming back.
According to Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, the ‘Ballista’ unit recently destroyed a Buk-M3 air defense system using first-person view (FPV) drones.
The Buk-M3 is no joke, its Russia’s most advanced mobile surface-to-air missile system, only rolled out in 2015, and built to swat down everything from jets to cruise missiles.
One battery can track and target up to 36 threats at once.
So yeah, this was a serious kill.
