What are US-made AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles that Russia claims to shoot down?

Four US high-speed AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles (HARM) were shot down over Russia’s Belgorod region, Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. “Four US HARM anti-radar missiles were shot down in air of Belgorod region,” ministry said in a statement. Russian media claimed that US AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles showed zero effectiveness in Ukraine, as most of m were shot down in air, reported Sputnik news.

In mid-August, Washington supplied AGM-88 HARM missiles to Ukraine. According to open sources, missiles are used by Ukrainian MiG-29 and Su-27 aircraft. “se missiles showed actually zero effectiveness in framework of hostilities in Ukraine – most of m were shot down by Russian anti-aircraft missile systems, ar part was suppressed or set aside by means of electronic protection of air defence systems,” source told Sputnik news, adding that some of se missiles also failed or missed target.

source also ted that low efficiency of HARM missiles is due to ir mediocre maximum speed, which is a little over 600 metres per second (1342 miles per hour), and high visibility. According to source, Ukrainian aviation uses se missiles from a long-range to avoid destroying aircraft, which allows Russian military to detect missiles long before y approach area where Russian air defence systems are located. At same time, source added that HARM missiles create certain difficulties in time-coordinated combined strikes because air defence systems are automatically redirected to m as a priority threat. However, Ukrainian troops have t yet been able to hit a single radar of Russian air defence system with HARM missiles, claims Kremlin.

What are AGM-88 ‘HARM’ missiles?

AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles (HARM) missiles are currently manufactured by rthrop Grumman aero and defence corporation in Virginia state of USA as it is an advanced version of AGM-88 missiles. base missile was originally developed by Texas Instruments and is w manufactured by Rayon Corporation which is also an American defence contractor. 

anti-radiation missiles are air-to-surface missiles and ‘HARM’ acronym stands for High-Speed Anti-Radiation missile. missiles are tactical in nature and are fired from combat-ready aircrafts. y have capability to recognise enemy radars that can track surface-to-air missiles and subsequently escape detection, in ory. 

AGM-88 HARM missiles are fourteen metres in length but are only ten inches in width. With a weight of 360kg, missile’s range exceeds 100km. missile holds a fragmentation type warhead that is optimised for radar targets. It also has an anti-radar homing seeker broadband RF antenna and receiver, and a solid state digital processor. HARM missile was adopted by US air force in 1983. maximum speed of missile is declared at 2,280 kilometres per hour or 630 metres per second.