A Russian General Staff official
believes Ukraine's Buk-M1 systems underwent upgrade at Ukraine’s own defense
enterprises, thus worsening the system's accuracy parameters and reliability
MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. A Russian General Staff
official believes that the head of Ukraine’s security service Valentin
Nalivaichenko has unintentionally blabbed out a hint that might shed light on
who was really responsible for the tragic loss of the Malaysian passenger jet
over Ukraine last summer. In an interview to one of Ukraine’s television
channels Nalivaichenko mentioned what he called a modernized Buk-M
anti-aircraft rocket complex, which has never been a standard weapon of air
defense units.
The source recalled that back in the early 1980s the
Soviet Union authorized the Buk-M1 complex for service, and it was
primarily deployed in the Kiev, Odessa and Carpathian military districts in the
territory of what is now independent Ukraine.
“According to our sources, the Ukrainian army still has
no fewer than 70 such complexes,” the General Staff official explained.
Since the late 1990s Russia’s air defense systems have
undergone fundamental rearmament with next generation systems: Buk-M1-2 and
Buk-M2. Both are still in service.
“As for Mr. Nalivaichenko’s statement, Ukraine has a
modernized Buk, it may be a clear hint indicating that this type of military
hardware has undergone upgrade at Ukraine’s own defense enterprises,” the General
Staff officer said.
“Any specialist will confirm that such unauthorized
intervention without the designer company (the Tikhomirov Institute of
Instrument Design, in Zhukovsky, the Moscow Region) taking part surely worsened
the complex’s accuracy parameters and reliability,” the source said.
The General Staff official suspects that Nalivaichenko
made a big mistake when he mentioned Ukraine’s ‘modernized’ Buk launcher. It is
appropriate to recall that a week after the Boeing jet disaster over Donetsk
there was a leak from Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies about an unintentional
missile launch during an exercise by the 156th anti-aircraft regiment, armed
with 'upgraded' Buk launchers. One does not have to be a genius to piece this
puzzle together,” the Russian General Staff official said.
Source:
ITAR-TASS 10-10-2014
