XPost: sci.military.naval, soc.history.war.misc

There are a lot of conflicting claims. Some claim Russia fired over
20 weapons at Ukraine and they were all shot down. Russia claims
they fired a Kinzhal and it destroyed a Patriot battery.
Maybe,, maybe, someday we will know, where in the middle ground
the truth lies.

But meanwhile, here is a Quora that gives some ideas of costs.

THE BATTLE FOR UKRAINE ·
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Answered by
Brent Cooper
15h

Russia launched 18 Kinzhal (and variant) missiles against Ukrainian
targets on 16th May. How much would this have cost them, and how much
would it have cost Ukraine to shoot them down (presumably using Patriots)?

Over the years the Patriot system and missiles have been continually
modified. The current interceptor missile for the Patriot system costs approximately $4 million per round and the launchers cost about $10
million each, CSIS reported.

On the night of 15-16 May, Russia spent at least US$119.08 million on
another large-scale attack on Ukraine.

At night, the Russians fired at Ukraine:

six Kinzhal aerial ballistic missiles;
nine Kalibr cruise missiles;
three ballistic/anti-aircraft missiles
six Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs;
three Orlan and SuperCam UAVs.
According to Forbes, a Kalibr cruise missile costs US$6.5 million,
bringing the total cost of the missiles fired at night to US$58.5 million.

A Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile can cost US$10 million and above,
with the total cost of six launches being US$60 million.

Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 attack drones, according to information from
open sources, cost from US$20,000 to US$50,000 per unit. In total, six
such UAVs cost US$280,000.

According to the General Staff, a Russian Orlan-10 drone costs
US$100,000. There is no data on the price of a SuperCam drone in open
sources, so we can assume that it is close to the price of the Orlan-10
UAV. Thus, three drones cost US$300,000.

Therefore, in total, the missiles and drones fired at Ukraine on the
night of 15-16 May cost US$119.08 million.

if Ukraine fired an equal number of Patriot missiles at the six
Kinzhals, nine Kalibr and three ballistic missiles, its costs would be
about $72m . Patriots would not be used against drones.

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interesting comments

Lee Spiro
· 13h
One also needs to calculate the value of the buildings and civilians
that would have been destroyed had the Russian missiles hit their
intended targets… tens of $millions? hundreds of $millions?

Vadim Naumov
· 13h
I doubt that a few collective farms cost that much.

However, given the blast in Khmelnitsky, Russians target warehouses with valuable NATO equipment. It is priceless)))

Malcolm Muir Smith
Life is priceless. Everything else is replaceable (and will be for Ukraine) Profile photo for Jack Scott
Jack Scott
· 13h
The cost to using those missiles is that they will be even more costly
to manufacture because of hi tech denied to Russia through the embargoes
the west has implemented. They will make more but the cost and credible
use will be huge against their economy.

Stephen Grimmer
· 7h
For every Kinzhal they build, 100,000 Russians have to go without
washing machines. It's the ‘command economy’ all over again.

Joel Penner
· 14h
So the missiles alone are ~118 million. And the Patriot missiles to
shoot them down are ~72 million.

On balance, Russia is worse off.

However it's close enough that it really depends on the GDP of the two countries, as to whether the expenses are sustainable or not for each.

Vadim Naumov
· 14h
Ha-ha, Ukrainians intercepted “all missiles”))) As usual.

However, what damaged a bunch of warehouses and a Patriot launching pad
(worth 1–1.5bn) itself?

Not the best promotion for Patriot. Destroyed (US will say “damaged” to save face) in the first battle.

Also, Ukraine did not fire “equal” number of the missiles.

Brent’s lies are even funnier than Ukrainians’)))

Jack Zhang
· 13h
A “Patriot launch pad” costs nothing. That’s just the ground you choose to put your equipment. The launchers themselves are simple trailers with
box launchers and probably cost no more than several thousand USD. The
command and control trailer, the antenna equipment, and the radar are
much more expensive, but the whole Patriot battery is spread out over a
large area, so one enemy projectile cannot take out the whole battery in
one shot. The whole battery may cost around 1 billion USD, but it’s
unlikely the whole battery was destroyed given the footage available.


Dmitry Dziuba
· 9h
If you were living in Kyiv, you would know that there was a lot of
aerial explosions and no ground explosions, those have very different
sound. So while debris may have damaged one of the launchers (not at all
sure if this happened), it didn’t affect battery operation

Vadim Naumov
· 13h
The point is:

1bn worth of equipment did not survive even a few days. It can be
repaired at some point in the future, but honestly, it does not matter
much. Monetary damage is substantial.
Ukrainians clearly make up numbers about the number and types of
missiles intercepted. Well, they made up every single number in this
campaign.

Jack Zhang
· 13h
unless they hit the radar or the command trailer, the rest of the
battery is fully operational. We’ll have to wait and see. I don’t know
why western countries think giving SAM batteries one at a time is
sufficient.


Vadim Naumov
· 13h
Assessment will take days, repairs most likely weeks, and it will be hit
the same way in the next attack. Realistically, Patriot has not shown
good results so far. It is a good system, but not for this particular task.

Also, Russian forces shoot 2 hypersonic missiles at the same target.
They shot 2 only, and everyone can see how they were intercepted.


David Deavours
· 11h
ha ha ha. You know what’s not shown good results? The “unstoppable” Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. So far the really old tech Patriot can
shoot ’em down just fine I mean the Patriot has been around since when,
1984?

Vadim Naumov
· 1h
So far they show some random metal crap, claiming they have intercepted Kinzhal. Ukrainians. Lies. As usual. Nothing new.

Khmelnitsky warehouse burns well. Btw radiation level went up even in
Poland after that strike)))

Phill Donanger
· 2h
They said that same thing about HIMARS, yet all 28 are still alive and
making Russian logistics hell.

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