Sri Lanka negotiates with Russia to acquire S-300 and Buk air defense missile systems.

According to the Sri Lanka Guardian newspaper website, Sri Lanka Defense Ministry is under negotiations with Russia to acquire new air defense systems S-300 and Buk. Currently Sri Lanka armed forces don't have any air defense missile systems.

S-300PMU 2 TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher) mobile unit (Picture source Army Recognition)

Sri lanka armed forces would like to increase their capacity against fighters aircraft and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Systems), by the use of missiles able to destroy these types of threats in addition to provide some cruise and ballistic missile defense capacities.

The S-300 (NATO reporting name SA-10 Grumble) is a series of initially Soviet and later Russian long range surface-to-air missile systems produced by NPO Almaz, based on the initial S-300P version. The latest version, the S-300PMU2 was introduced with the Russian army in 1997.

The S-300PMU2 Favorit was show for the first time during the Air Show Exhibtion MAKS edition 1997, in Moscow. Like the S-300PMU-1, 12 launcher units can be controlled, with any mix of 5P85SE2 self propelled and 5P85TE2 trailer launchers.

The S-300PMU2 Favorit can engage targets flying from 10 m to 27 km above the surface at a speed of up to 10,000 km/h. It is claimed that it has a kill ratio ranging from 0.8 to 0.93 against aircraft and from 0.8 to 0.98 against Tomahawk-class cruise missiles. The S-300PMU2 can engage up to 6 targets simultaneously while providing guidance for up to 12 missiles - two missiles per target ensuring target kill.

Buk-M2 medium-range mobile air defense missiile system (Picture source Vitaly Kuzmin)

The Buk missile system is a family of self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, and designed to counter cruise missiles, smart bombs, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The BUK-M3 is the latest variant in the family of Buk medium-range air defense missile system. The Buk-M3 uses the new 9R31M missile radar-guided surface-to-air missile (SAM) with increased range and enhanced overall performance compared with the 9M38 used on the Buk-M1 and Buk-M2. The Buk-3M’s target-destruction probability has reached 0.9999 and its maximum destruction range has been increased by 25 kilometers and now stands at 70 kilometers. The Buk-M3 is able to destroy any types of air targets from a range of 2.5 to 70 km, with a speed of 3,000 m/s at an altitude from 15 m to 35 km.

The Buk-M2 is the current variant in service with the Russian armed forces, also called with the NATO code name of SA-17 Grizzly.

The Buk-M2 can engage a wide variety of targets from aircraft to missiles flying at an altitude of between 10 and 24,000 m out a maximum range of 50 km in given conditions. The SA-17 Grizzly can engage simultaneous of up to 24 targets flying from any direction.