In the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which has not yet ended, many S-300 air defense ** in Russia and Ukraine have been destroyed, which can be said to be very bad.
In fact, this is not the first time that the S-300 has "lost face" in the international arena, from the war in Syria to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the S-300 has not performed very well, and it is far from the level it advertises.
Therefore, many people now believe that the S-300, which China spent billions of dollars on in the last century, lost money and was a complete waste.
Actually, this matter can't be seen that wayChina bought the S-300 in the last century because it could only buy the S-300 and could not produce long-range anti-aircraft missiles on its own.
So it's good that China can buy the S-300, and it's better to lag behind the S-300 than nothing.
It is true that in the eyes of China now, the S-300 is lagging behind, but in that era when China's national defense strength was weak, it did hold up a piece of the sky for China and played its due role.
It's like a person who eats 7 steamed buns and is full, he can't think that the first 6 steamed buns he ate are useless, and eating them is a waste, right?
In factIn the last century, the S-300 was of great use to China, and this air defense system allowed China to have regional air defense capabilities for the first time.
With this **, China has an additional deterrent power, ensures the safety of its own airspace, and reduces the number of times US planes run into the airspace around China.
To put it another way, today's China has its own Hongqi-9 anti-aircraft missiles before it feels that the S-300 is backward. If China does not have the Hongqi-9 or other long-range air defense systems, then what do we think of the S-300 air defense system?
Secondly, as the so-called air defense and air defense are based on ten defenses and nine air defenses, none of the modern air defense systems can guarantee a 100 percent interception rate.
Even China's own air defense systems such as the Hongqi-9 and Hongqi-16, or the American Patriot system and THAAD, dare not say that they can absolutely intercept missiles.
It's hard to say whether this interception rate can even reach 70%, because not only the Russian S-300 air defense system, but also the American air defense system has also found a mismatch between the actual combat interception rate and propaganda after actual combat tests.
For example, before the Gulf War, the United States claimed that the Patriot air defense system had a success rate of 80 to 90 percent. ButDuring the Gulf War, Iraq fired more than 90 missiles against Saudi Arabia and Israel, and the success rate of the Patriot system was only about 50 percent.
It can be seen that there is a widespread problem of false standards in air defense systems, and if China bought not the S-300 but the American Patriot air defense system, then in the eyes of China today, it would have wasted billions of dollars.
So to sum up, China wanted an air defense system before the 90s, and after the collapse of the USSR, China had the opportunity to buy the S-300, so naturally it had to buy it quickly, otherwise there would not even be the S-300.
Subsequently, China worked its own and developed more advanced air defense**, and the guy in his hand was stronger than the S-300, but we can't say that the S-300 did not play a role.
In addition, when it comes to the issue of anti-aircraft missiles, many people see that the Stinger missiles in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict have achieved outstanding results, but the S-300 has been destroyed a lot, and they think that the performance of the Stinger missiles exceeds that of the S-300 air defense system.
Naturally, this can't be contrasted like this, because it's a thing of two tracks.
The S-300 is a long-range air defense system, while the Stinger is only a man-portable anti-aircraft missile, and the two are not the same thing in terms of positioning or size.
The positioning of the S-300 air defense system is to strike high-altitude fighters within a range of tens to 300 kilometers, and the positioning of the Stinger missile is to be carried by individual soldiers to strike low-flying aircraft or ground attack aircraft and other models.
It's like a person who can't swim, has never touched water in his life, has never gone down a river, and another person who is a swimmer, but one day drowns for some reason, we conclude that the former is better than a swimmer, right?
The fundamental reason why the Stinger missile has achieved good results in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is that its targets are all flying objects that fly slowly and low like the Su-25 attack aircraft.
However, the target of the S-300 is mainly F-16, Su-27, and tactical missiles, which are high-altitude, fast-moving, or highly maneuverable aircraft, and naturally have a lower success rate of interception.
If you insist on an analogy, the positioning of the Stinger anti-aircraft missile is somewhat similar to that of the anti-aircraft machine gun during World War II, because the target is a slow and low-altitude aircraft, so it is not difficult to intercept.
Because it is not very difficult to intercept, the equipment for striking targets can be made relatively small in size, so as to achieve the goal of delegating equipment to the company level or even the squad level.
An air defense system as large as the S-300 requires a dedicated air defense position, which is very similar to the Berlin Tower in Germany during World War II.
All in all, after a long period of development, China's own air defense system technology has risen, and we feel that the performance of the S-300 is lagging behind.
At that time, a set of S-300 was regarded as a treasure in our country, and a set of air defense systems could support air defense in a very large area.
But now let's not talk about the S-300,It is the Hongqi-9 air defense system produced by China itself, and it is only an integral part of the entire air defense system in China.
The air defense systems of modern military powers are called "air defense networks" because they have several layers of air defense systems in the distance, middle and near.
Hongqi-9 is one of the long-range air defense systems, and if the enemy missile breaks through Hongqi-9, there is also a Hongqi-16 medium- and long-range air defense system inside. By the time the Hongqi-16 was broken through, there was an anti-aircraft vehicle called the LD2000 short-range air defense system at the very end.
This is just a conventional air defense system, and in fact, for military powers such as China, the United States, and Russia, the defense against ballistic missiles must also be considered.
Therefore, there is another layer of ballistic missile interception system outside this air defense system, which is now generally a mid-course anti-missile system.
In this system, a single S-300 cannot support all air defense systems, and it requires the cooperation of a variety of anti-aircraft missiles.
It can be seen that China has gone through a period of air defense supported by a single air defense system S-300 produced in Russia, and now it has a dense air defense network.
To this day, it is no longer meaningful to discuss whether the S-300 can play a role, because there is no more S-300, and there is no less than it.
But in the 90s of the last century, the S-300 really played a role, so it is not possible to talk about China's loss.
Project Sword References:
1] Xinhuanet "The interception rate of Russian missiles by the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces is less than 50%, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force: It is a good result".
2] Global Network, "Authoritative Science Popularization: Uncovering the Confusing General Root Cause of the Confusion in the Interception Rate of Syrian Air Attack Missiles".