S-400 vs Patriot: Which Air Defense System Is Better?

The S-400 Triumf is a Russian long-range surface-to-air missile system built by Almaz-Antey and in Russian service since 2007, when the first unit took up the defense of Moscow, according to the CSIS Missile Defense Project. It is designed to shoot down aircraft, drones, cruise missiles and, at shorter range, ballistic missiles. NATO calls it the SA-21 Growler.

A battalion links a long-range search radar, a fire-control radar, a command post and launchers that each carry four large missile tubes. Its main interceptor is the 48N6 family, which carries a 143 kg blast-fragmentation warhead. The very long-range 40N6 and the hit-to-kill 77N6 are newer additions whose deployment remains unclear, CSIS says.

Patriot is the US Army’s main air and missile defense system, built by Raytheon with interceptors from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and in service since the 1980s. A battery has one radar, an engagement control station and six to eight launchers, and needs about 90 soldiers, according to CSIS.

It fires two families of missiles. The PAC-2 GEM-T explodes near its target and is the cheaper round against aircraft and cruise missiles. The PAC-3 and its larger successor, the PAC-3 MSE, destroy their targets by hitting them, which makes them the rounds of choice against ballistic missiles. A modern M903 launcher holds 12 PAC-3 MSE.

The S-400, by a wide margin on paper. Its 48N6 missiles reach aerial targets up to 250 km away, and the 40N6 is credited with up to 400 km, CSIS says; Army Recognition gives the same 400 km ceiling. Its long-range search radar is credited with detecting targets up to 600 km away, according to Defence Security Asia and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

The Patriot’s GEM-T reaches up to about 160 km against aircraft, and the PAC-3 about 35 to 50 km, the Kyiv Independent reported. The PAC-3 MSE nearly doubles the PAC-3’s reach, according to CSIS. The US government keeps exact figures classified.

Against ballistic missiles the gap narrows. The S-400 engages them only out to about 60 km, by CSIS’s count, and against warheads falling at up to 4.8 km per second, Army Recognition reports. That is the same short-range, last-moment intercept that the Patriot’s PAC-3 rounds are built for. Above both sits the US THAAD system, which hits ballistic missiles higher in their fall; we priced its interceptors in How Much Does a THAAD Missile Cost?

They cost broadly the same per battery, though both prices are rough. Turkey agreed in December 2017 to pay about $2.5 billion for four S-400 batteries, the head of Russia’s Rostec said, Hürriyet Daily News reported, with a Russian loan covering 55 percent; Defence Industries gave the same figure. That is about $625 million a battery. India signed a $5.43 billion contract for five S-400 squadrons in 2018, Angel One reported in May 2026, or about $1.1 billion a squadron.

A newly built Patriot battery with its missiles costs about $1.1 billion, according to a CSIS estimate that the Congressional Research Service repeats. One PAC-3 MSE costs about $4 million to $5.3 million, as we detailed in How Much Does a Patriot Missile Cost?

The Patriot has far more users. It is the principal air defense system of 19 countries, nine of them in Europe, Army Technology reported in April 2026. Users listed by CSIS include Germany, Japan, Poland, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Ukraine.

The S-400 has four confirmed operators: Russia, China, India and Turkey. India had three of its five squadrons in service by May 2026, with the rest due by 2027, The Week reported. Turkey paid a heavy price for its purchase. Washington removed it from the F-35 program in July 2019 and sanctioned its defense procurement agency in December 2020, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The Patriot has the longer and better-documented record. In May 2023 a Patriot battery near Kyiv shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile, which Russia markets as hypersonic, and the Pentagon confirmed the intercept, The Aviationist reported. Patriot also carried much of the defense of US bases, Israel and the Gulf states against Iranian missiles in 2026, at the cost of the stocks noted above. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have used it against Houthi missiles and drones for years.

The S-400’s claims are larger but less tested in public. In August 2025 India’s air force chief, Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh, said the S-400 shot down five Pakistani fighters and one large surveillance aircraft in the May 2025 conflict, one of them about 300 km away, The Tribune reported; Business Today carried the same account. Pakistan has not confirmed the losses. In Crimea, Ukraine has repeatedly destroyed S-400 launchers and radars, including four launchers that Ukrainian military intelligence said were destroyed or critically damaged at Dzhankoi on April 17, 2024, the Kyiv Post reported.

It depends on the job. The S-400 covers more sky from one site and can threaten aircraft far beyond the border, which is why India values it against Pakistan and China. The Patriot is the stronger ballistic-missile shield in practice, with hit-to-kill interceptors in large-scale production and proof against Iranian and Russian missiles. It also plugs into NATO and US networks, which the S-400 cannot. Turkey’s experience shows that is not a small point.