Battlefield victory: remembering a Ukrainian attack that destroyed Russia's best radar system

In August 2023, Ukrianian forces scored a major victory over the Kremlin when after drone operators located and destroyed one of the best military radar systems that Russia has put into the field against Ukraine.

At the time, the target Ukrianian troops struck was one of the single most expensive high-value weapons Kyiv knocked out in a single strike. It was a critical over-the-horizon radar system referred to as the Predel-E, which was valued at hundreds of millions of dollars according to Newsweek.

In an August 28th Telegram post, the Ukrainian Southern Defense Forces revealed that soldiers from the defensive region attacked and destroyed a Russian Predel-E coastal radar station somewhere in Kherson Oblast. 

Photo Credit: Screenshot from X @DefenceU

The Predel-E is one of Russia’s newest coastal over-the-horizon radar stations and was designed to detect ships in coastal areas according to Maritime Security and Defense. 

Photo Credit: Screenshot from X @DefenceU

In the post, the Southern Defense Forces wrote that the radar station was previously presented to a group of professionals in Russia before the radar system was redeployed to the war in Ukraine. 

Photo Credit: Screenshot from X @DefenceU

The Predel-E was sent to Kherson in secret in order to monitor Ukrainian actions “by sea and on land” according to a translation of the Telegram post by Ukrainiska Pravda. 

Photo Credit: Screenshot from X @DefenceU

Video evidence of the destroyed Predel-E was shared by the Southern Defense Forces, and it showed the smoking burnt-out shell of the radar system after it was hit by the Ukrianian Armed Forces.

Photo Credit: Screenshot from X @DefenceU

It was noted that the Predel-E station was covered by one of the Kremlin’s most modern electronic-radio warfare “Leer-2” systems, but the Russian system didn't prevent the Predel-E from being uncovered and destroyed.  

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin

"Already in August, our soldiers completely destroyed the unique development worth US $200 million," read the post according to a translation of the report by Newsweek.

The Leer-2 system was also allegedly destroyed in the strike according to an X post (then known as Twitter at the time) by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, which noted that its armed forces were “hunting exotic beasts.”

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin

The news that Ukraine destroyed a Russian Predel-E radar system was a significant feather in the cap of Ukrainian forces at the time and a major addition to the country's growing list of big-ticket military equipment that the Ukrianian Armed Forces had eliminated. 

Ukraine's strategy throughout most of the war up until August 2023 and beyond has focused on targeting high-value Russian assets all along the frontlines in an effort to equalize the playing field between the Ukrainian and Russia's armed forces. 

For example, in mid-August 2024, a video released by the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces showed an extensive Russian T-90 tank being destroyed by what it said was a $500 dollar commercial hobby drone. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @ua_dshv/1504

"The whole point is cost," the Center for Naval Analysis’ defense and technology expert Samuel Bendett explained to Business Insider at the time. "These are extremely cost-effective."

However, the Predel-E radar system destroyed in the Kherson region back in August 2023 wasn’t struck by a cheap commercial drone but rather by something far larger according to some bloggers and analysts. 

Newsweek reported that “open-source intelligence accounts” and one influential military blogger said the Predel-E was hit by a High Mobility Rocket Artillery System (HIMARS) strike, though that was not confirmed by the news organization at the time. 

Defense Express speculated that the Predel-E radar system could have been hit with a HIMARS strike or by a US-made and GPS-guided M982 Excalibur projectile, though that claim has also not been proven. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By United States Army, Public Domain