DAILY BEAST: …It’s a sophisticated surface-to-air anti-aircraft system with a range of up to 25 kilometers high, putting Flight MH17 easily within range. Unlike the powerful, extremely long-range and much-feared Russian S-300 (also know as the SA-10 or SA-20) surface-to-air missile, the Buk is not tied into a national air defense system. The system’s operators have to rely on their own radar, which has limited capability. “Normally it is not netted into the national air defense system,” Zaloga said. “It would be netted into the army’s air defense network.”
“It’s not super high-tech, but it can do the job,” added retired Maj Raymond Finch, an expert in Soviet and Russian weapons systems at the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. “It can go way high. It’s a deep strike.”…
This is borne out by separatist leader and Russian intelligence official Igor Strelkov, who earlier today posted online “do not fly in our skies,” adding that his forces had shot down a plane. After the identity of the crashed airplane became known, the Strelkov’s comments were scrubbed from the web site. Separatists now deny having shot down the airliner or even possessing Buk systems, despite publicly capturing some in June from Ukrainian forces… (more)
