Despite Russia announcing that its cutting-edge air defense system, the S-500, is now operational and can defeat the West’s (and Israel’s) F-35 stealth fighter jets, multiple sources have told The Jerusalem Post that this is unlikely to be true.
One source noted that Russia often makes exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims to boost sales to other countries; this may also be a deterrence tactic.
The S-500 was supposed to be operational many years ago. New expectations came for it in both 2021 and 2024, neither of which materialized.
In contrast to Russian projections of its technological capabilities, the war with Ukraine has exposed numerous weaknesses and debunked many of its public military claims.
New detection capabilities
Another source said that it was possible that the S-500 might have new detection capabilities to follow an F-35 stealth fighter from a distance of hundreds of kilometers. However, the source noted that following an F-35’s movements and matching those movements to a weapon that can shoot it down is extraordinarily difficult.
Collectively, the sources doubted that the S-500 is actually at a point where it can negate the current advantage that the US and Israel have over their adversaries when they use the F-35.
There is still little known about the S-500, as opposed to the S-300 and S-400 air defense systems, which have been used and deployed in different capacities between the mid-1980s until the present day.
Iran purchased the S-300 system from Russia for huge sums of money and campaigned for its delivery for nearly a decade, believing that it would protect its nuclear program from Israel. However, in response to Iran’s 2024 missile attacks, Israel destroyed all five S-300s in Iran.
This made it much easier for Israel to dismantle most of Iran’s nuclear program in June of this year.
Since then, Tehran has been seeking to improve its air defenses. News of new Russian technology that could negate the F-35 is potentially game-changing.
Even the sources who said that Russia’s new technology is unlikely to counter the F-35 cautioned that, at some point, this may change. Thus, Israel and the US must begin preparations for their own military counterpart.
Once the S-500 is fully operational, it can – reportedly – shoot down satellites and other space targets, making it potentially a more dynamic defense system than what has existed to date for Russia.