One Missile, 298 Lives Lost: Profile of the Buk 9K37/ SA-11 “Gadfly” SAM

Author’s Note: The tragic loss of 298 innocent lives in this incident requires a strong international response that many realize can only be provided by the United States. As SOFREP has recently reported, such a tragic incident involving citizens from nine different nations has now presented the respective governments and people of Flight 17’s victims with over 298 reasons to come to the realization that the Ukraine problem is now an international one. It is our hope that these nations work diligently with the US and its allies in order to achieve an appropriate foreign policy response to this tragedy, one that holds all involved state actors, government and military officials, and Russian-backed separatists duly responsible.

The Buk 9K37 missile system, more commonly known by its Department of Defense/NATO designation SA-11/Gadfly, is the weapon that is believed to have been used by pro-Russian separatists in the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, as SOFREP has previously reported.

For the purpose of this weapon system profile, the Buk 9K37 will be referred to by its DoD/NATO designation, SA-11. The purpose of this weapon system profile is to provide readers with a brief overview of the system’s capabilities and technical specifications, as well as limited amounts of contextual information regarding the MH017 shoot-down. It must be noted that all of the following information is derived strictly from multiple open-source reports. Although credible, this information may therefore contain figures that vary slightly with previously reported information. The intent is to ensure the most accurate numbers are reported.