After it was recently proposed by Mikhail Sheremet, a Russian lawmaker who represents the Republic of Crimea in the State Duma, discussion has swirled about the possibility that Russian military industry might use several “trophy” missiles recently captured in Ukraine to produce new weapons of its own.
Examples of “trophy” missiles include the US-made MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), a ballistic missile launched by the HIMARS mobile rocket system, and the British-made Storm Shadow/SCALP air-launched cruise missile.
However, several Russian military experts told Sputnik on Wednesday that Russia’s weapons industry is no longer lagging behind the West and produces much better weapons than the aging projectiles being donated to Ukraine.
“We have countless missiles that are much better than Storm Shadow, Scalp and Tomahawk,” said Viktor Litovkin, a military analyst and retired Russian Army colonel. “These are three missiles of approximately the same level.”
“That is, we have such a missile - this is the Kalibr, which can be launched from a submarine or from a surface ship. We have such missiles as the Kh-22, we have the X-101 missile and we have the Onyx missile. By the way, all of our missiles that I have listed are supersonic missiles, and the Tomahawk, Storm Shadow and SCALP are all subsonic missiles. Our missiles are much better than these missiles.”
He noted the Onyx has been heavily used to degrade the coastal defense systems of the Ukrainian cities of Odessa and Nikolaev, and that it served as the basis for India’s BraMos anti-ship missile.
“Thus, we can make any missiles [that we want]. We have a lot of talented people in our country, a lot of design bureaus,” Litovkin said.
He noted Russia could better spend its money elsewhere during a time of conflict.
“We must use those weapons, those missiles that we have, which are much more effective than the Storm Shadow - which we, by the way, have learned to shoot down, just like the Tomahawks and SCALPs.”
However, the retired officer noted “we need to undoubtedly study” the missiles in order to improve Russian air defenses.
“We are studying not only what kind of rocket it is, how it is made, what is the idea? What materials are used, what software, what explosives are used, how they fly, in what layers of the atmosphere, and so on. Many things. They capture our missiles, study our tanks, and we study theirs. But it does not mean that we must copy their technique, especially worse ones than what we have in service.”
Aleksey Borzenko, a military journalist who is deputy chief editor of the Literaturnaya Rossia newspaper, similarly told Sputnik that there is “no point in creating analogues.”
“First, those missiles that are supplied to Ukraine are old. These are all developments of 15 or even 30 years ago. And in missile weapons, we have overtaken the West in many areas. Why should we copy what was done a long time ago and no longer mystifies us? These are all Western junk. NATO and the United States have not transferred their newest and best weapons to Ukraine, just what they have in their warehouses.”
“The only thing that is interesting to our military scientists is just to see how their electronics are made. Nothing more. What do they have in the control unit, in the head? But there won't be anything that we ourselves would not have made a long time ago to one degree or another. These rockets are all old. Maybe as museum exhibits or as an opportunity to demonstrate somewhere, or to see how it is made.”
Borzenko highlighted that Russia has developed several types of hypersonic missiles and put them into service, while the US and NATO countries have lagged far behind.
“There is Avangard and Kinzhal. There are many systems that are an order of magnitude more advanced than anything that the Americans have now. They are trying to create a hypersonic missile, but they have no positive test results. We can already use ours, we ran them in and used them at testing ranges, and in some cases - in Ukraine, when we needed to hit some objects that were very buried in the ground. So I see no point in copying something from the secondary systems that Ukraine receives from the West.”
Noting the high accuracy of Russian missiles, the journalist said there was “nothing they can’t do.”
“Remember this story with the Patriot [air defense system] that we destroyed in Kiev. It was a demonstrative situation when, while trying to shoot back at our missiles, none of them could come up, and we destroyed the entire complex worth half a billion dollars.”