The Air Force ofthe Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that on the night of Thursday, October 12, the russians launched 33 kamikaze drones of the Shahed-131/136 type over the territory of Ukraine. The attack was repulsed immediately in 6 regions of Ukraine. The units of the air defense forces managed to shoot down 28 kamikaze drones, but five of them still reached their targets and hit the port infrastructure in the South of Odesa region.
Later, Ukraine’s Air Force released an official video that shows one of the episodes of shooting down Shahed-tipe drones that night. This video is important because it became the first official confirmation that the Defense Forces of Ukraine have in teir disposal an improvised British air defense system that uses the AIM-132 ASRAAM air-to-air missile. This video shows the combat operation of this SAM system too.
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#Ukraine: One of the first videos showing the Ukrainian Supacat-ASRAAM air defense system in action, shooting down a Russian Shahed kamikaze UAV tonight.The delivery of this FrankenSAM by the UK was first revealed in August. pic.twitter.com/c0kQ4qRYWj
— Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 12, 2023
For the first time, it became known about the presence of the British systems, that uses the AIM-132 ASRAAM missile on ersatz launchers, at the disposal of the Ukrainian military only in August 2023, but the original source at that time was the publication of the British publication The Times with reference to the words of an unnamed officer of the Ukrainian armybecame known about the presence of the British systemsx that uses the AIM-132 ASRAAM missile on ersatz launchers at the disposal of the Ukrainian military only in August 2023, but the original source at that time was the publication of the British publication The Times with reference to the words of an unnamed officer of the Ukrainian army.
In the same publication, an image of this improvised air defense system by Great Britain was published, which allowed at least a relative assessment of the characteristics of this system. As you can clearly see, the pylons from the Eurofighter fighter jet are used as guides for the AIM-132 AMRAAM, and the missiles are launched vertically.
The AIM-132 itself has high energy at the start, and at the same time quite moderate dimensions: the starting weight is only 88 kg, the length of the fuselage is 2.9 meters. When launched from an aircraft, the launch range of the AIM-132 can reach up to 25 kilometers, so it is quite likely that when launched from the ground, the firing range can be up to 10 kilometers.
So far, the only clear image available of the British air defense system that is using AIM-132 missile shows what looks like a mini-radar for detecting air targets. But, as we can understand from the above video that was published by Ukraine’s Air Force, the launch of missiles can be carried out without turning on the radar, assuming that the infrared homing system will be directed to the thermal trace of the target.
In any case, this is what the sequence that first one of the fighters says "we see him!" indicates. (that is, an Iranian kamikaze drone of the Shahed type), the next step is the command to launch missiles, and the third step is the actual launch of the AIM-132 ASRAAM missile.
Defense Express reported earlier about British "Shahed-Killer" MSI-DS Terrahawk Paladin for Ukraine. We also wrote, that USA Revealed What was the Point of Sending AIM-9 Air-To-Air Missiles to Ukraine.
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