The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's press service reported this on Telegram, with reference to the Command of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces.
"In the Kharkiv region, an air defense unit of the 95th Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces used a British-made Starstreak MANPADS and successfully destroyed another russian Orlan-10 UAV," the statement said.
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The press service said this is the second Orlan-10 drone shot down by Ukrainian soldiers, with the first UAV of this type shot down on April 9.
The video published by the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces shows the first combat use of a Starstreak MANPADS by a Ukrainian air defense unit.
StarStreak was developed by the British company Shorts Missile Systems, and manufactured by Thales Air Defense in the UK.
Note that StarStreak was adopted in 1997 and is a "younger" development than the Stinger missile. Also, this MANPADS has very interesting features and high performance characteristics.
The HVM is a laser-guided missile. The operator 'paints' the target whilst looking through an aiming unit. Once fired, an initial rocket ignition propels the missile a safe distance away from the launch unit. A secondary ignition accelerates the missile to a burn-out velocity of Mach 3.5 (3.5 times the speed of sound).
Starstreak’s lightweight 14kg missile has a claimed operational range of more than 7km, with Thales stating that the precision weapons have “low collateral damage”.
It is also reportedly the fastest short-range surface-to-air system in the world, with a peak velocity above Mach 3.
As Defense Express reported, russian advanced Orion UAV was shot down in Ukraine earlier. It was the first enemy’s loss of this kind of UAV.
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