Britain says Russia has increased its use of air defence missiles

Russia has increased its use of air defence missiles in a secondary ground attack mode because of critical shortages of dedicated ground-attack missiles, the British military intelligence said on Friday. Russia has almost certainly deployed S-300 and S-400 strategic air defence systems, designed to shoot down aircraft and missiles at long ranges, near Ukraine from the start of the invasion, the Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update.

The weapons, which have relatively small warheads are designed to destroy aircraft, it said, adding that they could pose a significant threat against troops in open and light buildings but are unlikely to penetrate hardened structures. There is a high chance of these weapons missing their intended targets and causing civilian casualties because the missiles are not optimised for this role and their crews will have little training for such missions, the Defence Ministry said.

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