WASHINGTON — U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, captured old Russian anti-radiation missiles from ISIS fighters in western Raqqa.
Video of the weapons cache and missiles were uploaded to the group’s official press page on Thursday.
The video appears to show several Russian KH-58 or KH-28 anti-radiation missiles.
The Russian missiles were designed in the 1970s to home in on and destroy enemy radar and air defense systems. The KH-28 was the first liquid fueled Russian anti-radiation missile and was quickly replaced by the solid fuel KH-58 missile, according to research from Dr. Carlo Kopp, the editor in chief of Air Power Australia.
There are several versions of the anti-radiation missile, and Military Times cannot confirm if the missile in the video is an older version or a newer model. The older KH-58 has a range of roughly 120 kilometers while the newer versions like the KH-58U and KH-58E have a range of 250 km and 200 km, respectively, according to Kopp’s research.
The missiles were designed to be carried by the Russian Su-24 Fencer, the Su-17/22 Fitter, and Su-25 Frogfoot. Newer versions of the missile can be carried by the MiG-31BM Foxhound, according to Kopp’s research.
The missiles are air to ground, and it is unlikely there would have been any practical means for ISIS to use these weapons. Like a lot of weapon systems floating around the Syrian battlefield, these missiles were likely captured by ISIS fighters from the Syrian military.
“The short story is they were designed to be launched from Fencer/Foxbat aircraft against HAWK and Patriot missile systems, said John Venable, a 25-year veteran of the Air Force and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
”At one point the missiles may have been useful to the Syrian Air Force, but they would have been virtually useless to ISIS unless … they could have turned them into roadside bombs, but they had no means of launching these weapons,” he added
The Syrian army boasts a lot of former Soviet aircraft, tanks, missiles and weapon systems.
The Kurdish fighters are now in the third month of trying to liberate ISIS’ self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa. The weapons stockpile discovered by the YPG militants, from what appeared to be a munitions factory for ISIS, included hundreds of mortars.
Shawn Snow is the senior reporter for Marine Corps Times and a Marine Corps veteran.
