Defense One: Ukraine will receive experimental anti-drone weapons from US
The US plans to send experimental weapons to Ukraine to combat the Iranian Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones, which russia uses to attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Defense One reports, citing representatives of the American state contracting company SAIC, that these are likely mobile missile systems with laser guidance, already announced in the new military aid package.
SAIC is among the contenders to implement the army's urgent operation to assist the Ukrainian Defense Forces in destroying the "Shaheds."
On Tuesday, April 4, the United States announced a large military aid package to Ukraine focused on air defense. The list included "10 mobile c-UAS laser-guided rocket systems."
"That follows a January competition held by the US Army, which was seeking a system to fight off Shahed-136 suicide drones. SAIC, which participated in the competition, is in the running to send ten of the weapons to Ukraine, a company representative told Defense One on the sidelines of the Association of the US Army's Global Force Symposium last week," the publication reports.
It recalled that russia used the Shahed-136 to attack not only the Ukrainian armed forces but also civilian infrastructure, which caused blackouts.
"Ukraine has downed many of the Iranian-made drones, which cost about $20,000 apiece, but sometimes is forced to use $500,000 air-defense missiles to do so," the analysts noted.
In comments to Defense One, representatives of the US military and another test participant, Invariant Systems, did not confirm that they were to supply the systems to Ukraine but pointed to other details that support SAIC's claims.
Contract documents provided by the army stated that the purpose of the tests was to destroy Class III drones, meaning drones weighing more than 25 kg. The Iranian Shahed-136 weighs about 200 kg.
"Other details in the contracting document also conform to information provided by SAIC. For instance, the documents say a winning design should be ready to ship to partner nations within 30 to 90 days of a contract award—roughly the amount of time between the January test and the April news that the systems were being sent to Ukraine," the publication reports.
Analysts say the contract also purportedly states that the systems could be funded by Title 22 agencies, which are used to support security assistance to Ukraine.
A company spokesman said SAIC used laser-guided BAE APKWS missiles in January tests, which achieved 100 percent accuracy. SAIC Army Business Unit Vice President Greg Fortier said that these missiles are cheaper at less than $30,000 each than larger Ukrainian air defense missiles.
SAIC systems engineer Jeremy Davidson specified that the system also includes an M240 machine gun mount and an electronic warfare system that can take control of a commercial drone, including any DJI brand system that does not operate with advanced encryption. According to him, DJI drones are often used by both sides in Ukraine.
Fortier added that their system detected a drone at a distance of more than 10 km and hit it at a distance of 5 km, much more than the army needed at about 2 km. He added that SAIC and Invariant performed best in the test.
Invariant CEO David Anderson said he did not know whether his system was part of the announced supply to the US Department of Defense.
According to Samuel Bendett of the Center for Naval Analysis, Washington has sent chiefly the military with existing technology. It is unclear whether the US ever sent weapons created from scratch for use, specifically in Ukraine.
Other anti-aircraft assistance in the recently announced $2.5 billion aid package included munitions for NASAMS, trucks with 30mm anti-drone artillery, three air surveillance radars, and 30mm and 23mm anti-aircraft munitions. A senior Pentagon official says the aid combines production cuts and equipment purchases.
He stated that the 30mm artillery mounts and laser-guided C-UAS air defense systems were intended to destroy the Shaheds.
"We want to help Ukraine advance and hold this position in what we expect will be a Ukrainian counter-offensive," the official said.
Reference
The other day, Poland agreed to provide Ukraine with a new military aid package. It will include armored personnel carriers, MiG-29 fighters, air defense systems, mortars, and other weapons.
