According to the Defense Ministers of Ukraine and Germany, on October 11, 2022, the German side handed over to the armed forces of Ukraine the first set of the IRIS-T SLM medium-range anti-aircraft missile system of the new production of the German company Diehl Defense (as part of the Diehl Group). The transfer, as stated, was carried out on the territory of Poland near the Ukrainian border, and on October 12, the complex was delivered to Ukraine, becoming the first modern Western-made medium or long-range air defense system delivered to Ukraine.
Two sheathed self-propelled launchers of the first set of the Diehl Defense IRIS-T SLM anti-aircraft missile system before being handed over by Germany to the armed forces of Ukraine, on the territory of Poland, 10.10.2022 (c) photo from social networksDeveloped by Diehl Defense with funding from the German Ministry of Defense under a 2007 contract, the IRIS-T SLM uses a specially developed anti-aircraft guided missile with a range of up to 40 km and an altitude reach of up to 20 km, equipped with an infrared homing head of the IRIS-T short-range air-to-air guided missile manufactured by Diehl Defense.
The IRIS-T SLM missile complex uses additional radio command guidance (in combination with inertial-satellite correction) on the main part of the trajectory with the capture of the target by an infrared type IIR GPS on the final section. The mass of a rocket with a transport and launch container is 280 kg. The complex includes a TOC (Tactical Operations Centre) command post, a mobile Saab Giraffe 4A detection and targeting radar with AFAR and three mobile vertical launchers of eight missiles each.
The first and until recently the only customer of the IRIS-T SLM air defense system was Egypt, which contracted 16 complexes under the agreements of 2018 and 2020 (the first seven in 2018), and received the first of them at the end of 2021. All elements of the complex for Egypt are carried out on the chassis of Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV) HX (8x8) military vehicles.
In 2014, demonstration firings of the IRIS-T SLM SAM were conducted with the Australian multifunctional radar CEA Technologies CEAFAR with AFAR, which in the variant for this complex was designated GBMMR. Lockheed Martin Corporation has also been marketing a variant of the IRIS-T SLM complex called Falcon since 2019, performed with the Saab Giraffe 4A radar and the new SkyKeeper (C2) control system developed by Lockheed Martin UK (the British branch of Lockheed Martin).
The IRIS-T air defense systems in a simplified version of the SLS with less long-range IRIS-T SLS missiles (actually an analogue of the basic IRIS-T missile) were ordered in small quantities by Sweden (Rb 98) and Norway. The German Armed Forces planned to use IRIS-T SLS/SLM missiles for integration into the planned acquisition of the MEADS air defense and missile defense complex, the purchase of which was never carried out in the end.
In May 2022, it became known that the German government was discussing the issue of supplying Ukraine with an IRIS-T SLM medium-range air defense system at the request of Ukraine. In total, Ukraine requested the supply of 10 IRIS-T SLM air defense systems, but their production would have to take up to three to four years. On June 1, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a speech in the Bundestag, announced his government's decision to supply the IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Ukraine. "This is the most modern air defense system available to Germany. Thanks to this, we are giving Ukraine the opportunity to protect a whole large city from Russian air attacks," Scholz said.
As a result, the German government decided to supply Ukraine with four IRIS-T SLM air defense systems of the new production of Diehl Defense at the expense of German government funding. The issue with the speed of production was resolved by the fact that the complexes for Ukraine were taken from among those manufactured for Egypt, for which it was necessary to reach an agreement with the Egyptian side on the production of a similar number of SAMs for it in return, with the postponement of their deliveries to a later date. This made it possible to supply Ukraine with the first IRIS-T SLM complex already in October. It is reported that three other air defense systems will be ready for transfer in early 2023 (according to a number of statements, the first of them may be transferred by the end of 2022).
The sheathed mobile CBT command post of the first set of the Diehl Defense IRIS-T SLM anti-aircraft missile system before being handed over by Germany to the armed forces of Ukraine, on the territory of Poland, 10.10.2022 (c) photo from social networks
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The composition of the German anti-aircraft missile system Diehl Defense IRIS-T SLM (c) Diehl Defense
