The war in Ukraine has continued throughout the month of October and its outcome remains unknown. Once again, we will have a look at the weapons provided by the weapons industry to uncover the business that is being promoted through the war. Last time we introduced the American Howitzer M777, this time we will look at the direct competitor of the USA when it comes to selling weapons, namely Russia. The model that we are going to discuss is a relative new missile type known as Kalibr 3M14, which just as the American Howitzer was used in Ukraine to neutralize its owners’ enemies.
Chapter 2: The Russian Kalibr 3M14 Missile
This specific type of missile was introduced in the war since the beginning and helped the Russian Military to confront the Ukrainian one. It can be launched from a boat or a submarine, flies with a speed of 1000 km/h and reaches targets within 1600-2600 kilometers by flying in a flight altitude of 50-150 meters above the ground. This last altitude makes it difficult for the defenders to destroy it while it is flying, although the Ukrainian military claimed some relative successes in that endeavor.
It was used for the first time in the Syrian Civil War, in which it provided effective assistance for the Russian operation of stabilizing the Assad-Regime and weakening various Rebel factions. It was within this operation it proved itself effective as it was launched by submarines located in the Mediterranean Sea and by ships from the Caspian Sea to find and ultimately eliminate its targeted objectives in Syria. International actors, namely China, India, Algeria, Iran, and Vietnam were convinced of its capabilities, resulting in the purchase of the submarine type of Kalibr called Club-S.
Why does the usage of Kalibr in the Ukrainian war matter for the warfare business? In Syria, the Kalibr was used to fight rebels that had no chance to react against such an advanced weapon system. This is not the case in Ukraine. Its first main opponent was the Soviet era S-300 system. The recent attacks on civilian infrastructure of the energy sector indicate that the S-300 is not sufficient to interfere with absolute success against the Kalibr. According to Marineforum.online, Ukraine claims to have eliminated 43 of 83 launched Kalibr missiles. This suggests a 51% of missile defense capability, with the rest of the missiles being able to destroy their targets. As always with war, this number is very difficult to be verified. What we can confirm though is that Ukraine requested more advanced missile system like NASAMS and IRIS-T that would allow them to confront the Russian ones.
The Kalibr missiles proved at least partially efficient against the S-300 system and will probably get the chance to face the western missiles that were already named above. If they can prove themselves once again efficient in the field of the battle, then there is no doubt that its customers will return to order more units, and probably it will attract new customers as well. It is also to be expected that Russia will try to produce even more units for its own military, despite manufacturing problems faced by Russia.