Expert Khodarenok: Kiev may not need the Vampire anti-UAV system promised by the United States The United States plans to supply Ukraine with a system to combat unmanned aerial vehicles "Vampire" by mid-2023.
The conclusion of the contract is expected within the next few months. About what this will mean for the course of hostilities in the framework of a special military operation - in the material of the military observer "Gazeta.Ru" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
Over the past four weeks, the Russian Armed Forces have used a combination of cruise missiles of various types of basing and barrage ammunition to strike at critical military and energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the air temperature in Ukraine on the eve of winter is decreasing every day.
Despite the fact that representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claim that during the special military operation, the Ukrainian military shot down more than 1,400 enemy UAVs, Kiev continues to insist on the supply of additional air defense systems. The United States and NATO generally respond positively to this request from the Ukrainian military and political leadership.
According to Western observers, these SAMs/SAMs include man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems Stinger manufactured by the United States and other countries (including the British Starstreak), S-300 medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems of various modifications produced during the USSR, Hawk medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems from Spain and IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile systems from Germany. The United States is on the verge of delivering the NASAMS air defense system, which is jointly produced by the American corporation Raytheon and the Norwegian company Kongsberg.
Earlier this week, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General of the Air Force Pat Ryder noted that the Ukrainian air defense forces have already demonstrated that they can integrate air defense means, "especially, for example, when it comes to destroying a significant percentage of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles."
Washington emphasizes that the air defense of Ukraine remains one of the most important priorities for the US military department. "This is something we will continue to focus on and work on as quickly as we can," said Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder.
Technical difficulties on the way to solving such problems are more than significant.
The situation with the air defense of Ukraine, according to US experts, continues to heat up. For example, the Joe Biden administration recently stated that Iranian instructors allegedly operate directly on the territory of Crimea, providing attacks by Russian unmanned aerial vehicles on critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine.
In general, time is crucial for Ukraine and its allies. Since, according to US experts, there are not enough fresh Russian units, units and formations that can be used to create operational and tactical-level strike groups on the line of combat contact yet, Russia's capabilities to conduct large-scale combined arms operations, from the point of view of the American leadership, do not look unambiguously real in the near future.
"And right now, Ukraine's partners must lay the foundation for a military victory in 2023," says a new assessment by the Joint Royal Institute for Security and Defense Research, a British defense think tank.
These deadlines do not resemble the unprecedented speed of the transfer of weapons to Ukraine in any way.
According to a representative of the developer company, L3Harris Technologies expects to deliver the Vampire system within 9 months requested by the Pentagon, counted from the moment of signing the contract.
To begin with, we note that the Vampire system missile system is a development of L3Harris Technologies. This enterprise of the United States military-industrial complex specializes in communication technologies for the military and space - tracking systems, night vision, electronic suppression, interception of radio signals, aerogeodetic surveillance, combat control systems, avionics, flight simulators, scanning and recognition, detection of explosives, high-tech sights.
In addition, L3Harris Technologies develops aerospace and defense software. The range of areas for which software is being developed includes land, sea, space and cybernetic areas.
As for the Vampire system missile system itself (Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment), then
The system is mounted on a standard transport pallet. A telescopic mast with an optoelectronic station (ECO) and a launcher with four transport and launch containers (TPC) are installed on it. The pallet can be placed on almost any platform (pickups, trucks, any stationary platforms, boat decks, etc.).
The Vampire system is equipped with an optoelectronic station of the WESCAM MX™-RSTA type weighing 15 kg. It allows you to receive real-time information from six sensors of various types, while ensuring operation in low-light conditions and with HD resolution.
The TPC houses AGR-20 APKWS guided missiles, which are an upgraded version of the Hydra 70 unguided missile.
The dimensions of the affected area (upper, lower, near and far borders) of the Vampire system are not disclosed at this stage.
The weight of the AGR-20 APKWS rocket is 15 kg, the flight speed reaches 700-1000 m / s, the miss is no more than 50-100 cm.
At the same time, there are no reliable statistics on the combat use of the Vampire system complex yet. Therefore, there is definitely no reason to assume how Vampire will behave during the fighting in Ukraine.
As for the possible delivery dates - mid-2023 - by this date, the Vampire missile system in Ukraine may no longer be needed. There is no doubt for a second that the military-political situation in the region next summer will be qualitatively different from what it looks like at the beginning of November 2022.
The problem of combating unmanned aerial vehicles is currently acute not only during the fighting in Ukraine. According to expert data, the market volume of anti-UAVS in the next few years will be at least tens of billions of dollars. Interest in all possible ways of countering unmanned aerial vehicles has grown significantly against the background of a special military operation. This applies to electronic warfare systems, and short-range and short-range anti-aircraft missile systems.
Mikhail Khodarenok