As Victory Day celebrations swept across Russia yesterday, in the city of Chita a SA-11 “Buk” surface-to-air missile system caught fire while parading through the city’s streets. Not exactly an ideal scenario in a tight urban area surrounded by other vehicles, people, and uh... possibly live missiles.
The SA-11 became notorious after one of them shot down Malaysian Air MH17 over Eastern Ukraine last summer. As such, their appearance in Moscow’s Victory Day parade this year made for some lively comments during the live streaming of the event on YouTube.
Tyler Rogoway is a defense journalist and photographer who maintains the website Foxtrot Alpha for Jalopnik.com You can reach Tyler with story ideas or direct comments regarding this or any other defense topic via the email address Tyler@Jalopnik.com