See query. There was a very large international AF exercise there in March, as well as one with Israel, separately, and it was (presumably) a major Red Team asset.
I don’t know how well Allied defenses have progressed against it, specifically, or how deeply Iran–for a big instance–relies on it as part of layered defense, so that’s part of the query too, if anyone’s got the info.
They were originally bought by [Greek} Cyprus as part of their ongoing conflict with Turkey. After much argument and threats, the Greek Government moved them to Crete, where they remain.
You would have to go back a long way to examine the reasons why Greece and Turkey don’t get on; it goes back centuries. More here you are interested
So this means that NATO can practice using real S-300 hardware? Does it also mean that engineers for the U.S. have actually gotten to take apart a unit and measure it’s real performance?
As for defending against it - I wonder if it will ever become necessary to go back to basically defensive guns of some type. One would think that eventually, missile firmware would be too smart to be fooled by any sort of ECM or jamming (the new machine learning techniques ought to allow you to design nearly impervious neural network style digital filters against countermeasures - a neural network is a very large digital filter and ideal for this) .
And since the missile is a device that uses rocket motors for an all out effort, and can pull far more Gs than a pilot, if you can’t fool the missile and you can’t dodge, well, either shoot it down or lose an aircraft.
I’ve seen reference to work being done on developing point defence missiles to launch from chaff dispensers. CIWS and C-RAM systems for ships and ground bases are already in common use as gun-based point defences.
Countries that are Merchants of Death, such as America, Russia and Britain, no more than their clients, generally rate ideology far less than cash in hand when it comes to selling. Even during Cold War days there were few guarantees where the goods would end up.
And of course when the USSR collapsed there was a fire-sale anyway — and oversight went from minimal to none.
I think the s-300 has been supplanted by the s-400 and the s-500. These new ones aside from engaging against aircraft, can also engage ballistic missiles. Very formidable defensive weapons. They trump (no pun) US stealth fighters like the F-35. So I imagine that the s300, not only has been taken apart and examined in detail by the USA, has also been counter-measured… could soon be classified as near-obsolete, which is probably the reason that the Russians finally delivered on their 10 year-old deal with Iran to supply the s-300.