- Category
- Latest news
Patriot Falters, SAMP/T Shines: France Reveals Why Russia’s Iskanders Are Slipping Through
- Authors
![Photo of Roman Kohanets]( "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
France’s army chief’s recent remarks and a technical assessment published by Defense Express indicate that the Franco-Italian SAMP/T system is currently outperforming the Patriot system against Russian Iskander ballistic missiles in Ukraine, due to changes in missile flight profiles, according to Defense Express on November 7.
The publication reports that General Fabien Mandon told lawmakers the interception issue “is specifically with Patriot,” linking it to Russia’s alteration of flight profiles for its ballistic missiles.
The outlet notes that while Iskander’s end-phase maneuvering has existed from the outset, a profile change—achievable through settings rather than major hardware upgrades—better explains the recent challenge to Patriot.
The analysis adds that Russia likely calculated the capabilities of Patriot’s PAC-3 MSE interceptors and studied the AN/MPQ-53 radar’s search and tracking sectors to map “dead zones,” a process aided by observing radar emissions and post-strike effects, and took more than two years since Patriot arrived in Ukraine.
Defense Express cites official sector figures of roughly 90° for search and 120° for tracking.
According to Defense Express, the evidence suggests that Russia has tailored the Iskander specifically against the Patriot rather than all missile-defense systems.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Russia has modified its Iskander missiles with new manoeuvring capabilities, thus complicating Ukraine’s use of Patriot systems for interception.
-7f54d6f9a1e9b10de9b3e7ee663a18d9.png)
-e027084132fee1ae6b313d8b1d5dfc34.jpg "SBU Reportedly Strikes Russian Oil Platforms for the Second Time This Week in the Caspian Sea")
-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
