It was the fall of 2024 when Ukrainian media were actively debating that the country could get a potent boost to its air defenses if Kyiv convinced the European countries to provide their aging Cold War-era anti-aircraft missile systems, the Roland SAM was named in particular. That, as far as expectations went, would increase the density of protection from russian deep strike weapons, such as the slow and low-flying Shahed-136/131 loitering munitions.
Now it is possible to conclude that, in some ways, the request for a substantial number of Cold War-era air defense systems has been granted, although instead of Roland, Ukrainians got Soviet Kub missile systems.
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The Ukrainian 1039th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment revealed that it has Soviet Kub air defense missile systems, which were not in service with the Ukrainian military as of February 2022 but received later as military assistance from partner countries. The insight follows from a video released on the 33rd anniversary of the unit's creation.
As noticed by the SPZh Vodograi online magazine, among the equipment featured in the footage, there was a 1S91M self-propelled reconnaissance and missile guidance system (NATO reporting name: Straight Flush, it's a component of the Kub SAM) with Polish camouflage pattern. This coloring is actually an important detail since official reports never mentioned Poland had given these systems to Ukraine.
The only ones known to have handed their Kub systems over to Ukrainians in 2022–2023 are Slovakia and the Czech Republic, according to media reports. By the way, the vehicle in the still frame below the journalists identified as a 2P25M launcher in Czech camouflage.
On a note from Defense Express, Soviet Kub systems in general were manufactured from 1967 to 1983. Kub has a characteristic feature: it can only intercept the air threats moving in the incoming direction, or hit in the target's front hemisphere.
The maximum operating range and altitude of Kub are 25 kilometers and 12 kilometers, respectively. The main types of threats it counters (according to data sheets) are fixed-wing aircraft and subsonic cruise missiles; it can intercept targets moving at speeds up to 2,160 km/h. A battery of Kub systems usually consists of four launchers carrying three 3M9 surface-to-air missiles each, a command center, and one of the mentioned reconnaissance and guidance radars.
Kub has some interesting prospects for modernization. In one of our previous articles, we discussed the projects initiated in the Czech Republic and Poland to integrate American AIM-7 missiles with this air defense system. Since Ukraine had already successfully developed and fielded similar solutions for the Buk missile system, dubbed FrankenSAM, there is potential for an upgrade.
Still, this discovery at the same time illustrates an important nuance: while Europe really managed to spare some Soviet air defense systems, it goes to show once again how hasty and short-sighted was the decision to scrap all the Roland systems back in the 2000s — a topic we analyzed in more detail here.
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