Russia’s 'new' Krona-E air defense system: old tech in fresh package

Military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko expressed this opinion on his Telegram channel.

The IDEX 2025 arms exhibition will take place in Abu Dhabi (UAE) from February 17 to 21, where Russian weapons manufacturers will also be represented.

“At the exhibition, the Kalashnikov Concern will present the Krona-E SAM system, about which Russian propaganda outlets, without exception, enthusiastically claim that it is a unique, unparalleled, state-of-the-art system! In reality, this is not only a lie, but even more than that!” the expert writes.

Firstly, the Krona-E SAM system, which uses the BTR-82A as its chassis, is an old project based on the Sosna SAM system, which was first demonstrated in 2013. However, in the 12 years since then, this "state-of-the-art" system has neither received orders nor gone into serial production.

Secondly, the Krona-E SAM system is equipped not only with launchers for the 9M340 missiles but also a quartet of 9M333 missiles, which were used in the Soviet Strela-10 SAM system. This raises the question: why? According to their claimed characteristics, the 9M340 missiles are just as good, if not better, than the 9M333. So, why overload the combat module with these older missiles when you could simply keep the 6 9M340 missiles or add more of them instead?

Why aren't the launchers for the 9M335 missiles from the Pantsir-S1 air defense system installed on the Krona-E SAM system's combat vehicle? And in general, why reinvent the wheel by using old Soviet missiles when there's the excellent, serially produced Pantsir-S1 system?

The answers to these questions are quite mundane. The 9M340 missile is raw and underdeveloped, and its production is complicated in the current conditions. The Pantsir-S1 air defense system, despite all the hype and publicity, has not lived up to expectations and, in terms of its potential, is inferior to the old Soviet 2S6 Tunguska. And the archaic 9M333, for all its shortcomings, provides at least some guarantee that the missile will hit the target.

“This is the evolution of Russia's short-range SAM systems – the "newest" old-timer, the Krona-E SAM system, dating back to 2012, which, since the Sosna SAM system, still hasn't found a customer. Will rebranding help? The name on the sign can be changed, but the essence of the brothel won't change”, Kovalenko concludes.