During Ukraine’s Defence Industry Workers’ Day , two indigenous air defence missiles, possibly for short and medium ranges, were shown among other systems.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presentation for the Ukrainian Defence Industry Workers’ Day unveiled two new air defence missiles among Ukraine’s locally developed missiles, UAVs, and USVs.
One of the missiles is seen to have a large-diameter rocket motor, similar to the Russian Buk medium-range air defence missile. The other missile appears to be a localised derivative of the 9K33 Osa short-range air defence missile.
Captured Russian equipment and exchanges with Western officials on technical matters might have played an important role in Ukraine’s new effort to localise its air defence missile capabilities after the success with UAVs, USVs, and cruise missiles.
Due to the limited investment in anti-air missiles prior to the war, the West’s supply of modern or second-hand systems, and the agenda leaning towards C-UAS capabilities for the industry, Ukraine’s own capability to devise conventional air defence solutions has been rather limited at short range, based on the inherent production of air-to-air missiles, which still saw some success against Russian aircraft.
Longer ranged air defence systems are especially important against threats faster and more evasive than the daily Geran kamikaze UAV, such as cruise missiles and fighter jets, which are being addressed by the Western supply that might not always go smoothly due to political or logistical reasons.
Ukraine taking steps to expand the capability to develop and produce air defence systems of higher performance can be said to be a continuation of the wide-scale effort to establish an all-Ukrainian portfolio that is matured in the field.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor:Özgür Ekşi
