S-500

The S-500 Prometheus is designed with three primary tasks - the neutralizing of satellites and space aircraft outside the atmosphere, the interception of ballistic missiles, and the destruction of stealth enemy military aircraft. It is in this third role in particular, which will see the S-500 engage targets at lower altitudes within the atmosphere, where the missile system is set to prove a game changer against the air units of its potential adversaries. These systems limit the West’s strike capabilities in almost every area including "first strike". The new Russian missile system will reportedly be able to track heavy high value enemy aircraft at ranges of up to 800km, and can engage targets at ranges of up to 600km and at high hypersonic speeds of at least Mach 14.

Deployed to Kaliningrad, Crimea and the far west of Russia’s Central Province near Brayansk, the S-500 will maintain coverage over much of Europe including the entire Baltic Sea. E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft for example, flying over Berlin or a little north of Prague, will be well within range of Russian missile systems in Kaliningrad. The whole of Poland including new American military bases there will also be covered, as will the entire east coast of the Black Sea including Bucharest and Istanbul. The S-500 thus retains the potential to provide Russia with a significant aerial warfare advantage over much of Europe, and the high mobility of thee systems means that they can potentially be redeployed should Russian ground forces take to the offensive and take ground - extending their reach further westwards. The S-500’s deployment thus poses a very significant threat to NATO's freedom of operations in the European theatre in the event of war, and serves to complement the strength of Russia’s existing deterrent assets. The platform will be supported in its ‘AWACS hunter’ role by other shorter ranged hypersonic systems including the R-37 air to air missiles with a 400km range - deployed by the Su-57 fighters and MiG-31 interceptors, and the 40N6E surface to air missiles deployed by the S-400 and S-300V4 systems which also retain a 400km range.

The whole system is mobile. All components like Command & Control Center, Acquisition and battle management radar, multi-mode engagement radar, and anti-ballistic missile engagement radar are mounted on vehicles that have good cross-country mobility.

The system is capable of destroying targets in outer space. A special feature is its ability to work on a wide range of targets at ranges up to 600 km and at altitudes up to 200 km. In February 2024 the Russian military shot down several hypersonic missiles in tests. The latest complex also successfully hit and destroyed the intercontinental ballistic missile Seniva.

Former General Director of the Almaz-Antey corporation Igor Ashurbeili in 2011 said, "For interception of ballistic missiles, the S-500 will “mostly” use nuclear warheads because these can destroy the entire cloud of incoming warheads with no need to determine true threats from dummies”. As per some sources, the S-500 system can detect ballistic missiles at a range of 2000 km or 1242 miles and warheads of ballistic missiles at a range of 1300 km or about 810 miles. It may be able to defeat ballistic missiles before their warheads re-enter the atmosphere. S-500 system is said to be capable of tracking 5-20 ballistic targets and intercepting up to 5-10 ballistic targets simultaneously. This will enable the system to take on a saturation attack from the enemy.

Due to the massive range of the S-500, experts believe it will be able to take out low-orbit satellites acting as an anti-satellite weapon. Russia claims the system has a vertical range capable of destroying objects flying at near-space or 62 miles above the Earth's surface.

S-500 is touted to be capable of defeating HGV or Hypersonic Boost Glide Vehicle too.

On April 23, 2024 Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the deployment for combat duty the new generation S-500 Prometheus surface-to-air missile system to Russian troops had begun. In that week the S-500 was reported to have shot down 11 US-built ATACMS over Crimea and the Crimean bridge. Ukrainian GUR military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov confirmed on June 12, 2024 that the S-500 had been deployed to Kerch City.

In July 2025 a report from Ukraine claimed an S-500 shot down a volley of 15 UK/French-built Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

Combat use

Left: The UK/Ukraine 'Flamingo'; Right: The German V-1 "buzz bomb" with launcher arrived too late with certain vulnerabilities to make a difference. It's design decades later was the prototype for American Predator drone and others.

In October 2025 monitoring services confirmed the destruction of seven previously unknown missiles that were heading towards the Crimean Bridge at extremely low altitudes and high speeds. The Russian MoD reported that these enemy missiles were destroyed using S-500 Prometheus.

It is well known that these latest Russian systems protect the Kerch Strait and the Crimean Bridge from the Krasnodar region. The exact number of these systems located in the Krasnodar Region is kept strictly secret.

It was reported that these attacking NATO missiles were assembled using entirely British produced component parts. The Kiev regime is passing off these cruise missiles assembled in Ukraine as its own domestically produced 'Flamingo' missile. Two months earlier, the Russian GRU officially announced that 'Flamingo missiles' are in fact British-designed and are assembled exclusively from British parts and components.

See also

• F-35