Ukrainian SOF destroyed the Russian Zoopark-1 radar

16 June, 2023 The moment of the destruction of the Russian Zoopark-1 radar, June 2023 The Ukrainian military demonstrated part of its combat mission on adjusting artillery fire, which possibly resulted in the destruction of the radar and hit of the EW system. The press service of the Special Operations Forces announced the news on its social media.

In the area of the city of Bakhmut, the operators of one of the SOF units, in cooperation with the HIMARS MRL crew, destroyed the Russian 1L219 Zoopark-1 counter-battery radar system. The SOF operators spotted the radar's positions and shared the data on the location of the enemy unit with the gunners. After that, the Zoopark-1 was rapidly destroyed by a direct hit of a guided missile.

Special forces also scouted the Russian Borisoglebsk-2 electronic warfare system on a wheeled chassis. Judging by the nature of the artillery strike, it can be assumed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine used SMArt 155mm artillery rounds.

Despite the normal detonation of a cluster munition over the target, the result of the operation remains unclear. The site of the Russian system's defeat has already been geolocated. The system was placed among residential buildings in the village of Novoluhanske, Bakhmut district, Donetsk region.

The position of the Russian Borisoglebsk-2 EW system, June 2023.

Photo credits: DeepStatemap

The destruction of such a rather rare system was last documented back in March. At that time, the same SOF operators adjusted the artillery fire, which destroyed the 1L260 Zoopark-1M counter-battery radar of the Russian army.

1L219 Zoopark-1

Zoopark-1 is the Russian reconnaissance and fire control radar developed by the Tula Strela enterprise. It is designed to effectively counteract artillery and missile systems by detecting their positions while firing.

The radar can also be used to adjust the friendly artillery fire.

Russian Zoopark-1 counter-battery radar. Photo from open sources

The radar is mounted on the chassis of the MT-LB multi-purpose tracked platform. It is a system with a mobile passive electronically scanned array radar that can detect up to 70 positions per minute and simultaneously track up to 4 targets.

The manufacturer claims that counter-battery radar is able to detect the positions of 120mm mortars at a distance of 17 kilometers, 105mm and 155mm howitzers up to 12 kilometers, and the fire of multiple launch rocket systems such as BM-21 Grad and BM-27 Uragan at a distance of 40-45 kilometers.