USA arming Ukraine likely to trigger Russia to sell thousands of surface to air missiles

The USA is moving towards sending weapons to Ukraine.

Putin and the Russians may have intentionally shot down the Malaysian commercial jet. This would have been a warning that they could proliferate their missile technology to Al Qaeda or ISIS. The Russians may have shoulder launched missiles which can down commercial jets at cruising altitudes of 30,000 feet. Definitely 15000 feet is doable for shoulder launched. The Russians can compact the BUK missile system for smaller trucks and lower the costs. The Russian can flood the world with tens of thousands of such systems.

Military planes are designed to take on the threat of surface-to-air missiles. They are typically equipped with countermeasures that release one of two types of decoys: chaff, a cloud of metallic material that can confuse radar-guided missiles like the SA-11 Buk believed to have brought down MH17, or chemical flares to distract heat-seeking missiles.

These anti-missile systems can help save a plane — but they’re not infallible, and they’re not designed for the massive global fleet of commercial aircraft.

Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced in February that it successfully tested something called the Commercial Multi-Spectral Infrared Countermeasures (C-MUSIC) system, which uses laser technology and thermal imaging to jam incoming threats. The system, however, only protects against shoulder-launched heat-seeking missiles and not the radar-guided missile that reportedly hit MH17.

Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS) are shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). The neweset Russian MANPADS can reach commercial jet cruising altitude.

Russian have medium range Buk missiles

Russian have advanced beyond the 1980s style SA24 for shoulder launched

Current Russian models range from the SA-24 Igla-S – an advanced shoulder-launched system that’s easily as good as the latest models of the Stinger – to the long-range S-400, which is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles or bringing down aircraft over 250 miles away.

Wreckage of the Malaysian jet