The American magazine “Newsweek” published – quoting Russian media reports – that a drunken soldier (33 years old) threw a $ 160 million S-400 air defense system into a hole last Thursday and smashed it.
It quoted the Russian Baza Telegram channel as saying that the tractor fell directly on top of the missiles, but fortunately the ammunition was not activated, and that the soldier broke his arm.
Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, posted footage of the scene – via his Twitter account – and wrote: “The S-400 missile system fell into a ditch on a highway near Tula. This happened in the morning and the tractor is still lying there.”
It is noteworthy that the S-400 is a mobile surface-to-air missile system designed by Russia, and it is capable of engaging aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles. The US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that this system has a ballistic missile defense capability.
According to the center, Russia began developing this system in 1993, and it is a system that mostly uses the “N-648” series of missiles (N-648), which allows it to strike air targets at a range of up to 250 kilometers, and it is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles through A semicircle with a radius of 60 km.