Back in 2022, Ukraine's then Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi announced that Ukrainian units had received Polish air-defense systems capable of intercepting Iranian-made Shahed drones (launched by russian occupation forces) with Soviet-designed surface-to-air missiles.
Later that year, the first photographic evidence confirmed the presence of Polish Osa-AKM-P1 Żadło systems in Ukrainian service.
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The Osa-AKM-P1 Żadło is operated in particular by the 39th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. A crew of the system was featured in an ArmyTV report, where Ukrainian servicemen shared their impressions and explained some of the upgrades.
"Poland upgraded the cameras on this vehicle. They added a night mode — this allows us to detect and identify UAVs at night. Before, we could only track radar marks in darkness, but now when the camera and night mode switch on, we can clearly see whether it is an Orlan, a Shahed, or something else," explained the deputy crew chief with the call sign Fake.
He also noted that the antenna-launcher control system was modernized: "A joystick was added so I can operate the launcher directly from the cabin. Sometimes, when we launch, we see the target pulling away, and we can't keep up — at 10,000–10,300 meters that's already the system's limit. Beyond that, the vehicle should not fire. But there were cases when we launched at 10,500 m and destroyed targets at 11,000 m, 12,000 m, even 12,900 m. It's not recommended, but in critical moments, when the target posed a serious threat, we had to push the system beyond its limits."
According to senior Osa operator Viktor, his crew has destroyed 140 targets — not counting those eliminated at the very beginning of russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Among them: one destroyed and two damaged Su-type aircraft, two destroyed Orion reconnaissance-strike UAVs, cruise missiles, Shaheds, and various other types of drones.
Earlier, Defense Express reported that MBDA, inspired by its own RAVEN project for Ukraine, developed an entire line of air-defense systems based on ASRAAM missiles.
Read more: Ukrainian 2S22 Bohdana As a Prime Choice For Poland's Wheeled Artillery
