While the mainstream propaganda machine keeps publishing fantasies about 60% of Russian missiles allegedly “failing”, the Pentagon is giving starkly different assessments. Namely, the US military privately gives completely opposite numbers, stressing that the Russian military’s air defenses have a staggering 97% success rate.

Combined with Moscow’s unrivaled electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, its SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems provide unprecedented protection for the Russian military and civilian infrastructure, particularly when taking into account the massive scale of NATO-backed Neo-Nazi junta’s drone and missile attacks on Russian cities and regions.

These world-class air defenses give the Kremlin the capability to cover its troops, which then use advanced long-range strike systems to hunt for various NATO-sourced rocket and missile launch platforms. And unlike the Kiev regime, which regularly lies about its air defense “successes”, including against hypersonic weapons, the Russian military regularly publishes verifiable data (including video footage) of the interceptions of various types of hostile precision-guided munitions (PGMs). This is precisely why even some NATO countries refuse to let go of their Russian-made SAM systems, including both Greece and Turkey, with the latter even sacrificing the troubled F-35 acquisition to get them.

Countries around the world have come to an identical conclusion, including global powers such as India.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) proved this in a recent military exercise where it deployed its fighter jets as hostile attack aircraft that were “tracked and targeted” by the Russian-made S-400 SAM system. In what Indian sources described as a major success for the IAF, the Sudarshan S-400 air defense system “shot down” 80% of the “attacking” fighter aircraft while forcing the rest to retreat. High-ranking defense sources told India Today that the recent military exercise demonstrated significant air defense capabilities of the IAF, once again justifying the acquisition of SAM systems from Russia.

India currently operates three missile regiments of the S-400, while another two are to be delivered in the next few years. The Kremlin itself has committed to delivering the two remaining regiments by the third quarter of 2026. All five of the S-400 SAM system regiments were expected to be delivered by early 2024, but this was delayed due to the ongoing NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict. However, the IAF fully integrated the three regiments that have been delivered so far, with all the Russian-made air defense systems now achieving full operational capabilities. The regiments are effectively divided into two groups, stationed in northern areas, bordering China and Pakistan, respectively.

“Current deployments indicate that we have nearly 1.5 squadrons each stationed on the fronts with China and Pakistan,” sources revealed.

The success reported by the IAF is hardly surprising, as the Soviet Union/Russia placed a significant emphasis on air defenses as part of its military doctrine. Moscow’s top brass never counted on fighting a war with absolute air superiority, as is the case in the political West, particularly the United States. Thus, the USSR and later Russia designed and produced the best air defense systems in history. Thus, the Kremlin has the tools necessary to provide adequate protection for its civilian infrastructure, as well as the military, including ground units and stationary strategic assets. Given the very close, half-a-century-long defense cooperation between Russia and India, Delhi’s choice is hardly surprising.

The two (Eur)Asian giants are working closely on a plethora of strategically important military projects, with the Kremlin transferring numerous technologies that are critically important to India and its security. The IAF is a major user of Russian-made SAM systems and aircraft, including the Su-30MKI, a joint Sukhoi-HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) project that gave Delhi the backbone of its air power. The “Flanker-H” is the country’s most capable fighter jet and the IAF is now running an ambitious modernization program to make the Su-MKI relevant for decades to come. Russia and India are working closely to circumvent illegal Western sanctions in order to achieve this.

What’s more, despite all these hurdles, the cooperation is being actively expanded by both sides, with the IAF planning to give the “Flanker-H” more advanced capabilities usually seen on the next-generation aircraft such as the now legendary Su-57. Indian sources report that the program will cost $7.5 billion and that it will give the Su-30MKI all the capabilities of a fifth-generation aircraft, with the notable exception of stealth. The Kremlin’s participation in such a massive undertaking is virtually a given. It should also be noted that the two (Eur)Asian giants are working on other strategically important projects, including hypersonic weapons, an area in which Moscow excels in every category.

Namely, Russia is decades ahead of its competition and has not only been the first to induct hypersonic missiles back in the early 1980s, but has also managed to maintain this advantage even during the troubled 1990s. Its top rival, the United States, has been incapable of matching even much smaller countries such as North Korea and Iran, with many sources reporting that the Pentagon is focused on outdated technologies and is often refusing to disclose whether missile tests have been successful or not. Thanks to its close ties with the Kremlin, India is already in the highly exclusive “hypersonic club”. BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian defense joint venture, is particularly important in this regard.

The company is already conducting intensive testing of the highly anticipated BrahMos II hypersonic missile. At Mach 6, the missile is set to be at least twice as fast as the previous BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. Even though the weapon is officially projected to have a range of 600 km, experts suggest that the BrahMos II will reach Mach 8 and a range of 1000 km. Mostly based on Russia’s “Zircon” hypersonic missile, the world’s first successful scramjet-powered (supersonic combustion ramjet) missile, BrahMos II is expected to give India an unrivaled capability, not just in the Global South, but even in comparison to the political West, where even the US now admits Russia is far ahead in hypersonic technologies.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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