The Buk Missile Which Shot Down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Last Year

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 (Bernama) -- Here is an insight into the Buk surface-to-air missile system which carries the 9N314M-type warhead that was used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine last year.

The missile, which was developed by the Soviet Union and introduced in 1979 comprises a command vehicle, target acquisition radar and several rocket vehicles.

According to the Dutch Safety Board report, the missile is an air defence system consisting of different components in various models and configuration.

"The warhead of this weapon system is filled with an explosive charge surrounded by two layers of preformed fragments.

"A Buk surface-to-air missile system can reach an altitude of 80,000 feet (24.4km). This altitude far exceeds the altitude of 33,000 feet (10.1km) at which Flight MH17 was flying," said the board in its 20-page summary report on the MH17 crash.

The report was made available online via its website at http://cdn.onderzoeksraad.nl/documents/brochure-mh17-crash-en.pdf today.

The Dutch Safety Board reported that the particles found in the doomed aircraft and in the bodies of three of the crew members consisted of unalloyed steel.

It said the particles were cube and bow-tie shaped.

"The number of impacts, the distribution pattern and the shape of the high-energy objects that were found are consistent with the pre-shaped fragments in the warhead of the 9N314M model," it said.

According to news agency Deutsche Presse Agenture (DPA) which quoted the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Ukrainian Army last year owned more than 60 Buk-M1 systems.

In contrast, Ukraine recently claimed it no longer owned any Buk system while Russia had around 350 systems of various types, said DPA.

The pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine were also reported to have possessed Buk missiles, said the news agency.

Flight MH17 was shot down in a tense area of Ukraine near the Russian border on July 17, last year. All 283 passengers and 15 crew onboard the Boeing 777 aircraft, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, perished.

-- BERNAMA