The United States announced yesterday a new package of military aid to Ukraine, worth 2.6 billion dollars, which includes “significant capabilities for air defense and for counteract the Russian unmanned aerial systems. To this last category belong the 10 mobile laser-guided rocket systems c-UASacronym in English for unmanned aerial counter-system, which the Pentagon indicates in the list of approved military equipment and which correspond to an experimental anti-drone platform.
This new system aims to help Ukraine to shoot down the drones shahed-136 Iranian-made used by Russia, according to a representative of the contractor SAIC to the Defenseone medium. SAIC is an American company that, among other airlines, is dedicated to the development of weapons systems and that won the competition opened by the US Army for the development of a class 3 drone combat system; that is, unmanned aerial vehicles weighing more than the 25 kilograms. The Iranian Shahed-136s weigh around 200 kilos each drone.
The experimental anti-drone platform developed by SAIC was selected by the US Army after offering the best results in a series of tests carried out last January. The tender specified that the systems should be ready to be sent to other countries within a period of between one and three months, a period that has been fulfilled with yesterday’s announcement.
Shahed-136s began to be used in Ukraine by Russia last September and have been a constant threat ever since. Ukraine is proving to be quite effective in its air defense and manages to shoot down the majority in each wave of attacks, but these also have the effect of forcing it to use high value ammunition against very low cost targets for Russia. Sometimes even missiles Half a million dollars against targets that slightly exceed the €18,000. The cost of the SAIC system is around €27,000 per unit.
platform includes APKWS laser guided rocketsacronym for Advance Precision Kill Weapon System or advanced system of precision weapons to kill, which in the January tests had a 100% hit rate. This laser technology belongs to the manufacturer BAE Systems who has been using it for a decade to convert 2.75-inch (70-millimeter) unguided projectiles into guided rockets with “millimeter” precision that produce “minimum collateral damage”. These rockets can be launched from platforms compatible with a wide variety of vehicles, both air, land and sea.
Although Army conditions specified that the platform had to be capable of shooting down drones at a distance of 2 kilometersSAIC’s anti-drone system was able to fix the target at a distance of almost 10 kilometers and destroy it when it was 4.8 during the tests in January.
SAIC’s anti-drone weapon also includes a mount for a M240 machine gun It fires 7.62×51 mm caliber ammunition with a range of up to 1,100 meters and at a rate of up to 950 shots per minute.
The last essential component of the platform is an electronic warfare system with which you can take control of commercial dronesincluding any of the models of the Chinese manufacturer DJI that does not have advanced encryption. Both Russia and Ukraine are using the drones of this manufacturer in the war.
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