The introduction of S-350, Pantsir SM and S-500 means that not just the most advanced modern means of aerial attack but also the ones that the NATO plan to introduce in the next 20 years cound be countered by specific systems.
And the beauty of it is that it is not just these three systems... Igla-S and Verba have proximity fuses and can shoot down targets the size of AT-3 missiles and smaller, and also the introduction of 30mm and 57mm rounds with air burst will be much cheaper than a missile but rather effective and rather more efficient than using standard rounds, and of course the new Pine missiles are small and cheap and simple beam riding missiles like a super high speed Kornet.
They tried altitude first with the U2 spy plane, then speed with the SR-71, and then they tried stealth and low altitude flight, and next they want to go with a swarm... but the Soviet and now Russian air defence didn't focus on each one individually... it defends against them all... Russia itself has stepped ahead and gone for hypersonic and is in the best position to defend itself from a new attack that is only in service with their own forces.
With S-500 it is not just range, it means the air defence force... the IADS network of Russia now extends to the fastest objects man has made and it also extends up into space, able to shoot down low flying satellites as well as ballistic and non ballistic missiles, right down to tiny hovering drones and vehicles on the ground.
I rather suspect the best response from Russia to an enormous cloud of thousands of drones coming across Europe would be tactical nuclear air bursts amongst them before they cross the border into Russian territory, but also would require strikes against the countries from whom the attacks were launched and those that owned the drones, just to make it clear such attacks will not be tolerated.
As I keep mentioning... if there are any countries on the planet that can make tiny but reliable drones in numbers big enough to create a swarm it would be Russia or China... I certainly wouldn't think the US could make such a drone affordable.
Let's imagine a B-2 trying to attack Damascus being engaged by S-500 while the missiles it have launched are dealt by S-350 and the eventual few ones of them that will survive by Pantsirs.
More importantly that is just one defensive bubble... the S-500 system in Damascus would engage the B-2 but the long range OTH radars would have detected the incoming threat well before it approached its launch position and so depending on the direction of the attack coastal units might shoot down any weapons the B-2 launched before it gets anywhere near its targets, and those missiles might fly past a dozen different SAM sites which would all be put on alert when the attack was detected... ships at sea behind the first flight of B-2s might be alerted to take out any second attack wave, and then enemy ships and other aircraft in the area can be checked to see if they want to join the fiery dive to the ground with your tail missing club...
We talk about the missiles themselves but all the radar and sensors they add to the network greatly increases what your IADS can see which means less guessing and better decisions.
We have heard about modifications of large AAMs to engage smaller targets with mini missiles they deliver hundreds of kms away, and the same could be applied to missiles as big as the S-500, but I would think that in addition to such weapons that another nuclear armed missile could be added perhaps with a cluster of nuclear warheads that could be released at altitude and spread out evenly amongst a swarm of enemy drones and detonated at the altitude they are operating at to stop it dead in its tracks... putting it on the S-500 means you could launch it deep into enemy territory so you are not nuking up your own nearby forces.... perhaps nuclear powered EMP bombs... I guess it all depends on the form and size of these drones... but to get huge numbers they will need to be small which probably means relatively slow and short ranged, which means transport aircraft or missiles to deliver them to their area of operation... which means the best defence will be a good IADS.... something the west lacks so even previous attack methods like cruise missiles would be rather effective against HATO... not to mention drones and stealth and high speed.
MiG and Sukhoi are making new planes and older planes so the gaps there will be filling in too.
I would not like to be in the position of a military planer in the US right now, I can tell you that...
4D chess is something to behold isn't it...
But then creating a powerful and effective IADS does not make sense for the west because they believe attack is their best defence. The Soviets and Russians have been the victims of western aggression since the end of WWI, and to their credit they have done a pretty good job... especially recently... no need for 50K tanks, but they are moving to the quality that the west said was going to save them from the hordes of Soviet forces just waiting to invade europe... now the shoe is on the other foot and HATO have the numbers and are pushing up to Russian borders, undermining democracy and breaking rules of civil decency in the process...
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