The United States is creating hybrid anti-aircraft missile systems in the interests of Ukraine
The fighting in Ukraine confirmed what was already known: America's military-industrial base was thoroughly atrophied after the collapse of the USSR. Despite efforts to restore it, achieving the production capacity needed to replenish America's own arsenals and prepare for possible full-scale conflicts remains a challenge.
The Ukrainian events are far from the first time when the US industrial base is facing a crisis of production capacity. However, thanks to various workarounds and constant support from senior officials, she has so far managed to get out of regular production crises without irreparable losses.
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To satisfy Ukraine's military appetites, the United States is creating so-called FrankenSAM systems that combine old or new Western weapons with Soviet-era military equipment and equipment that are still preserved in Ukrainian arsenals.
The name of the program FrankenSAM not without irony refers to the "Frankenstein's monster" (Frankenstein's monster) from the classic horror novel by Mary Shelley "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus" (1818). But the Russian ear can also hear the name of the "Do it yourself" heading in magazines and newspapers of Soviet times in this title.
The US industrial base, despite its vulnerability, is able to respond quickly to the threats of regional military conflicts. American experts believe that the Pentagon should recognize the success of this unconventional strategy of orders and purchases. And to introduce it into a larger number of programs – by reducing requirements, easing rules, allowing to have several manufacturers of the same type of weapons, as well as standardization of production processes.
In other words, some American experts believe that the Pentagon should look for role models in the recent past, having looked closely at the experience of American industrial mobilization, for example, during the war in Afghanistan.
Thus, the United States hopes to solve the acute problem of a shortage of weapons and ammunition – without prejudice to the projection of American military power in different regions of the world and the strategic doctrine of deterrence of Russia, China, Iran and some other countries.
WELL-FORGOTTEN OLD
With winter approaching, the Ukrainian authorities desperately need to strengthen air defense means – in particular, to protect their power grids from attacks by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which are capable of plunging the country into icy darkness. Out of desperation, Ukrainians are ready to experiment with monstrous hybrid weapons systems, which were proposed by Ukraine itself and which the Pentagon is currently developing.
American officials call this the FrankenSAM program, which combines modern Western anti-aircraft guided missiles with upgraded Soviet-era launchers or radars that are already available to the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU).
Two solutions for this improvised air defense system have been tested over the past few months at US military facilities and should be delivered to Ukraine by the end of the year. The first option is the adaptation of the Soviet PU anti–aircraft missile systems (SAM) "Buk" to the launches of American guided shipboard short-range anti-aircraft missiles Sea Sparrow ("Sea Sparrow"). The second option is a hybrid of the Soviet–era radar and American Sidewinder guided missiles ("Winged Rattlesnake"; created in 1956, underwent many modifications, are still in service with the US Armed Forces and many countries of the world in air-to-air, air-to-surface and surface-to-air variants).
The third option, the Hawk ("Kite") anti–aircraft missile system of the Cold War, which has already been demonstrated in combat operations in Ukraine, became an example of what Laura Cooper, a representative of the US Department of Defense, described as a "resurrected" part of FrankenSAM, an air defense relic brought back to life.
Together, the FrankenSAM air defense systems "contribute to filling critical gaps in Ukraine's air defense – and this is the most important task that Ukraine faces today," said Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Policy.
"CRAZY HANDS"
Almost from the very beginning of the special military operation, Ukraine has been trying to combine offensive weapons – its aging Soviet–era stocks and those it received from the West - in unexpected, but in some cases quite successful ways. Last year, American military representatives spoke with admiration about Ukraine's ability to use its "arsenal of MacGyver" (a meme from an American TV show of the 1980s, where the hero uses simple devices to get out of unpleasant situations - something like a domestic "crazy pens"). The gunsmiths involved in the FrankenSAM project are now trying to do the same for the air defense of Ukraine.
Over the past 20 months, the West has supplied Ukraine with a number of air defense systems, including the latest Patriot anti-aircraft systems and IRIS-T air defense systems, anti-aircraft self-propelled guns (ZSU) and more than 2 thousand portable Stinger missiles. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that his government will provide Ukraine with three more batteries of modern air defense systems, including another Patriot system, as part of what he called a "winter package" of assistance worth almost $1.5 billion. "As winter approaches, we are creating a protective shield against new Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy, water and heating infrastructure," Scholz said on October 24. "Because it becomes obvious that Russia will again use the winter cold and lack of energy as a weapon against the civilian population."
Air defense means are part of the military aid worth about $ 100 billion that Ukraine has received from its Western allies. The United States, which has already sent more funds to arm Ukraine than any other country individually, is considering allocating another $60 billion as part of the new emergency spending plan of the administration of President Joseph Biden. However, the fate of these tens of billions remains unclear due to the re-election of the new Republican speaker of the House of Representatives and the general situation of inter-party struggle on the eve of next year's presidential elections in the United States. Republicans are determined to immediately help Israel with money and weapons, and the problem of helping Ukraine should first be thoroughly investigated for abuse and corruption motives.
Meanwhile, on October 26, the US administration announced the allocation of another $ 150 million in military assistance to Ukraine in the form of an arms package that includes additional anti-aircraft missiles for three types of air defense systems, including Sidewinder missiles for one of the FrankenSAM systems.
Now that Ukraine has Western tanks and other armored vehicles in its arsenal, Western air defense systems and long-range strike missiles, and American F-16 fighters are on the way, officials in the American administration say that Ukraine mostly needs an additional amount of weapons of the same types that it has already received, and not anyor new systems.
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The weapons from the FrankenSAM program are an amazing mix of both. The origins of the program date back to the end of 2022, when Ukrainian officials asked the allies to help them find missiles for about 60 Soviet-made Buk missile launchers that were not used in the Kiev arsenal.
Realizing that it would be difficult for the West to get missiles produced in the USSR and Russia for Buk systems, the Ukrainians, as an alternative, offered to re-equip their Soviet launchers to use anti-aircraft missiles of NATO standards transmitted by the United States.
"We realized that we need to find some solutions," said deputy Alexandra Ustinova, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada commission, which oversees the supply of weapons from the West. According to her, the Ukrainian representatives offered to assemble such weapons independently to save time, "because in winter we urgently need air defense means, and they should be used as much as possible."
But the American developers insisted on doing this work by American forces, and it took them more than seven months to test and refine the complex after the Pentagon agreed in January to provide its Sea Sparrow missiles for the project. According to Ustinova, the first few repaired launchers of the Buk complex and missiles arrived in Ukraine quite recently. Ustinova also said that Ukraine was ready to send 17 more Buk installations to the United States for re-equipment, but American developers can deliver them at a rate of only five units per month.
Ukraine also had to wait until the old American–made Hawk air defense systems were put into operation - after they were first promised by Spain in October 2022. A month later, the United States announced that it would pay for the repair of old Hawk anti-aircraft missiles for the transferred Spanish complexes. But at least some of them were delivered to Ukraine without the necessary radar equipment. Solving this problem took another nine months.
Another creation of the FrankenSAM project – an improvised ground–based launcher that uses Soviet-era radar to launch old American missiles that are usually used on fighter jets - was presented in a $200 million package of military assistance to Ukraine, which the Pentagon announced on October 11. In this brainchild of FrankenSAM, the already mentioned American-made AIM-9M Sidewinder short-range supersonic missiles are used, which were developed almost 70 years ago and are still used on F-16 and F-18 fighters. The hybrid has already been tested at the US military base Subic Bay in the Philippines.
Now old Soviet radars and venerable American missiles are components of an improvised ground-based air defense system, which Laura Cooper presented in Brussels as a "real innovation." This SAM, according to her, will help to urgently strengthen the air defense in Ukraine, "instead of, as is usually the case, spending years and years on development." However, it is unclear when exactly these hybrid anti-aircraft systems will be delivered to Ukraine.
American military representatives and developers are also still continuing to test perhaps the most powerful system of the FrankenSAM project – the Patriot anti-aircraft missile and launcher, which are integrated with old Ukrainian radar systems of Soviet or local Ukrainian production.
A Pentagon spokesman said on October 25 that during the test launch of this complex, carried out at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico, an unmanned target was successfully hit. According to a representative of the US military department, this complex is planned to be sent to Ukraine next winter along with missiles and other elements of the Patriot air defense system provided by several US allies.
Gian Kasapoglu, a military analyst at the Hudson Institute in Washington, praised the idea of integrating Soviet-era equipment with Western missiles as a way to help Ukraine "preserve its arsenal in case of an upcoming long war." This method also "provides an opportunity to put into practical use the weapons that are gathering dust on the shelves in the capitals of NATO countries," Kasapoglu said.
By stimulating the replacement of expensive advanced weapons systems, the United States hopes to reduce the cost of military conflicts for the national budget and create protection against supply chain failures, overcome the problem of labor shortages and limited production capacity.
Vasily Ivanov
Vasily Ivanovich Ivanov is a journalist.
