For the first time, the Pantsir anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missile system was deployed on a Russian naval ship, shooting down a Storm Shadow cruise missile of the Ukrainian army.
On April 7, Mr. Oleg Ryazantsev, Director of High Precision Systems Defense Joint Stock Company under Russia's Rostec Defense Corporation, confirmed the first use of the Pantsir-M naval air defense system to successfully intercept the Storm Shadow stealth cruise missile on the Ukrainian battlefield.
“ A Russian warship on duty detected and intercepted the Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile in time. This is the first time the Pantsir-M air defense system has achieved success in a special military operation ,” Ryazantsev said in an interview with Zvezda, the official television channel of the Russian Defense Ministry.
Oleg Ryazantsev added that Storm Shadow is a stealth cruise missile, an important weapon provided by the West and widely used by Ukrainian forces. However, with its special design, the Pantsir system is capable of countering this type of threat.
According to Sputnik, Mr. Ryazantsev did not specify the details of the incident, including the time of the Storm Shadow missile shootdown and the identity of the Russian warship involved.
However, according to Western sources, the Russian Black Sea Fleet only has the small missile ship Tsiklon, Karakurt class, which is the only warship equipped with the Pantsir-M air defense system.
Pantsir-M missile system.
Pantsir-M system
Russia developed the Pantsir-M system in 2017 and began equipping it on newly built warships since 2020. The Project 22800 Tsiklon ships became the first warships of the Russian Navy to be equipped with the new air defense system.
The Pantsir-M naval air defense system was developed by the Shipunov Engineering Design Bureau in 2017. Pantsir-M is a naval variant of the Panstir ground-based self-propelled surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft gun system.
The Pantsir-M system operates on the same principle as the ground-based Panstir, but is equipped with additional design features optimized for naval conditions and to counter threats at sea.
The ship-based version of the Pantsir-M is a point defense system (CIWS), designed to counter modern air attack vehicles such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), aircraft, anti-radar missiles, anti-ship missiles, guided missiles and other enemy vehicles.
The Pantsir-M system's missiles can strike targets at a range of up to 20 km and at an altitude of 15 km. In addition, the Pantsir-M is also capable of striking surface targets including ships and mines.
Pantsir-M is equipped with 8 Germes-K (Hermes-K) SAM missiles on both sides of the system, in addition to integrated complex control, communication and data transmission equipment.
The Pantsir-M's secondary armament consists of two AO-18KD 30x165mm rotary guns, 30mm caliber, with a range of up to 5 km and a rate of fire of 10,000 rounds/minute, capable of engaging targets at a distance of 4 km and at an altitude of up to 3 km. The AO-18KD gun is a variant of the Soviet-made 6K30GSh anti-aircraft automatic gun that was tested and first put into use in the mid-1960s.
Pantsir-M missiles deployed on the guided missile frigate Karakurt.
Pantsir-M can destroy 4 targets at the same time, with a firepower of 12 missiles and 1,400 bullets. This air defense system is equipped with an additional automatic ammunition loader located under the deck.
Currently, Pantsir-M is the only naval air defense system in the world that combines missiles, anti-aircraft guns using combat modules and radar-optical control systems, giving the system the ability to automatically search for targets, select and shoot at valuable targets.
The complex has a reaction time of 3 to 5 seconds and can hit targets flying at speeds of up to 1,000 m/s. In addition, the phased array radar equipped on the ship is capable of detecting targets estimated at up to 75 km, providing excellent support for the Pantsir-m system to respond.
The Pantsir-M air defense system weighs about 7,100 kg (including ammunition), making it suitable for deployment on small ships, such as Russia's Project 22800 Karakurt guided missile corvettes with a displacement of 870 tons.
The Russian Navy plans to equip all new warships, from missile corvettes to cruisers, with Pantsir-M, and upgrade existing ships with the system during modernization.
The Pantsir-M is expected to gradually replace the Kortik, the Soviet Union's combined SAM/automatic gun system. Although also equipped with the AO-18K rotary gun, the 9M311-1 SAM has a shorter range of only about 10 km.
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