Russia's New Counterbattery Radar Blown Up Hours After Arriving in Ukraine

Ukraine has taken out a brand-new Yastreb-AV counterbattery radar system, according to Kyiv, just hours after Moscow said it had deployed one of the artillery-seeking systems in the war-torn country.

On Tuesday, Russia's Defense Ministry said Moscow's troops were using the new Russian Yastreb-AV counterbattery radar in Ukraine, designed to detect artillery systems like the U.S.-provided HIMARS as well as howitzers and mortars commonly used by Kyiv's fighters.

The system "increases the efficiency of artillery fire and survivability on the battlefield," the Kremlin said. It is designed to track an opponent's missiles back to its launcher, finding the precise location of the artillery system before passing on this information to its own artillery.

It is the "most modern Russian radar system with a phased array antenna for reconnaissance of artillery firing positions," Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday. It works alongside other counterbattery systems Russia has deployed to the battlefield in Ukraine, such as the prized Zoopark set of systems.

But within just a few hours, Kyiv's special forces said Ukraine had hit a Yastreb-AV system at an unspecified location in the south of the country with one of its dozens of HIMARS—the very artillery system high up on the Yastreb-AV's list to detect.

The system was "destroyed," Ukraine said, posting a brief clip appearing to show a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone tracking the Yastreb-AV in the Ukrainian countryside before the moment of impact.

It is not clear how many Yastreb-AV systems are in use in Ukraine, but Kyiv's military said in August it had destroyed one Yastreb-AV.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Both Moscow and Kyiv are grappling to use their counterbattery radar systems more effectively than the other, searching for and taking out the artillery systems threatening their troops.

With the grueling, attritional war closing in fast on the two-year mark, hunting down Russia's counterbattery radar systems will only be more important for Ukraine. Experts previously suggested to Newsweek that against a larger military such as Russia's, Ukraine's targeting of radar systems could have a "disproportionate" impact on Russian operations.

In recent months, Ukraine has publicized and amplified numerous reports of successful strikes on Russian radar systems. Ukrainian officials have lauded the reported destruction of $10 million Zoopark counterbattery radar systems, and the U.K. government said in mid-July 2023 that "only a handful" of the Zooparks Russia sent over the border into Ukraine remain in use.

Ukrainian media reports suggest each of the new Yastreb-AV systems could cost up to $250 million, which would be significantly more expensive than systems like the Zoopark.

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