Crisis in Ukraine: How the SA-17 ‘Buk’ missile defense system may have shot down MH-17 скачать в хорошем качестве

Crisis in Ukraine: How the SA-17 ‘Buk’ missile defense system may have shot down MH-17

The U.S. government believes the Malaysia Airlines flight downed over Ukraine was probably hit by a missile fired by pro-Russia separatists. The missile was most likely fired from a Soviet-era defense system called the SA-17. At the heart of the SA-17 system is the launch vehicle. Called “Buk” by the Russians, it carries and fires up to four missiles at a time, including the 9M317 missile. With advanced guidance systems, solid-rocket propellant, and shrapnel cluster warheads, the 9M317 is usually used to defend against incoming missiles and fighter planes. The launcher vehicle is just one part of the system. A command post vehicle and a mobile radar vehicle are also a part of the missile battery group. This radar system can acquire targets as far as 200 kilometres away and 21 kilometres high. Once the system has a lock, an operator fires the missile. The projectile travels at over four times the speed of sound to its target. For most of this journey, the mobile radar is tracking the missile, and computers in the mobile command post correct its position. The 9M317 usually carries a warhead set to detonate around 50 meters away from its target, exploding into a cloud of shrapnel. One scenario is that this shrapnel carved holes into the fuselage of flight MH-17, rapidly depressurizing the plane, depriving the crew and passengers of oxygen and rendering them unconscious. This is in addition to the damage the projectiles themselves would cause. Without a crew to fly it, and the flight surfaces compromised, the aircraft would descend at a rapid pace, ultimately coming to rest in a field just 55 kilometres from the Russian border, leaving a 15 square-kilometre field of debris in its wake.