Military

9K37M1 BUK-1M/Buk-M1-2 / SA-11 GADFLY / SA-N-7 GADFLY

The SA-11 GADFLY is a medium-range, semi-active, radar-guided missile using solid-rocket propulsion that provides defense against high-performance aircraft and cruise missiles. The SA-N-7 GADFLY is the naval Version of the SA-11. Military air defense system 9K37 "Buk" (Beech) was intended to combat, under jamming conditions, aerodynamic targets flying at speeds up to 830 m / s, at medium and low altitudes, maneuvering with congestion to 10-12 units, at ranges up to 30 km, and Lance ballistic missiles.

Each SA-11 transporter erector launcher and radar (TELAR) was equipped with a 9S35 Fire Dome X-band multi-mode engagement radar under a radome on the front of the rotating launch platform, which provided tracking and CW illumination for the missile seekers. The radar, which has search, track and illuminator functions, can scan through a 120-degree arc, independent of the movement of the launch platform.

Rather than being reliant on one central radar for the whole system as in SA-6 Kub, each Buk transporter erector launcher (TEL) has its own fire control radar, moving from TEL to TELAR. This new design departed fundamentally from the 2K12 / SA-6 Gainful in system configuration, and removed the bottleneck in the firing rate of the 2K12 / SA-6A Gainful, in which each TEL depended on the tracking and illumination provided by the 1S91 Straight Flush.

Optimally it should be fired as a whole “kompleks” with the associated vehicles, but a single TELAR (whish has the target engagement radar incorporated onto it) is capable of limited autonomous operations. It would have difficulty against a high speed fast maneuvering target, but against an airliner flying a straight line at subsonic speed, it might have less of a problem problem.

Bill Sweetman writes that "... the Soviet military and the designers installed a set of backup modes that would permit the Telars to detect and attack targets autonomously, in the event the Snow Drift was shut down or destroyed by NATO’s rapidly improving anti-radar missiles. The autonomous modes are intended for last-ditch use by the Telar operators, not the more highly trained crews in the battery command vehicle. According to an experienced analyst of Russian-developed radar, the automatic radar modes display targets within range. The operator can then command the system to lock up the target, illuminate and shoot. Critically, these backup modes also bypass two safety features built into the 9S18M Snow Drift radar: a full-function identification friend-or-foe (IFF) system and non-cooperative target recognition (NCTR) modes."

The BUK-M1 surface-to-air medium-range missile system is designed to engage state-of-the art and perspective strategic and theatre-range aircraft, cruise missiles, helicopters and other aerodynamic targets within the whole range of their operation in intensive clutter and jamming environment, and to fight against LANCE-type theatre ballistic missiles, HARM anti-radar missiles, other high precision elements of air- and land-based weapons, and to engage surface- and land-based radar targets. Possessing high manoeurability and multi-purpose capabilities, this surface-to-air missile system ensures air defence of the troops, military installations, major administrative, industrial centers and other targets.

On 13 May 2015 Radio Free Europe reported that more and more evidence was emerging that seemed to document a large Russian military convoy that traveled to eastern Ukraine in June 2014 and brought Buk antiaircraft systems to Russia-backed separatists fighting against Kyiv. On 13 May 2015, a group of pro-Ukrainian citizen activists published a report purportedly identifying a Russian soldier named Dmitry Zubov who was a driver in that convoy and showing photographs of a Buk system with the identifying number 232 apparently being escorted across Russia to Ukraine.

A few weeks later -- on July 17, 2014 -- Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine's Donetsk region. All 298 people on board were killed. Although the investigation into the MH17 downing is ongoing, many believe the aircraft was shot down by the separatists using a Russian-provided Buk system.

Chapter Eight of a report based on research by slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov documenting Russia's alleged involvement in the conflict in Ukraine argues that MH17 was shot down by separatists using a Buk antiaircraft system.