It is no secret that artillery is the driving force of today’s warfare, says the serviceman of the Air Assault Forces in the Ukrainian Army.
Therefore, it is important to detect and take down unmanned aerial vehicles that help artillery to adjust fire.
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"They adjust fire of tanks, artillery and sometimes [cruise] missiles. Hence, when you shot down an enemy UAV, such as reconnaissance ones like ‘Orlan-10’, you, so to say, deprive the enemy of sight.”
The soldier whose name is not disclosed in a video, published by the Air Assault Command, has taken down 9 russian aerial drones during the russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to him, the most difficult part of this job is to detect a drone. It takes about 70% of the time. Then the missile and laser guidance do the rest.
He uses a Martlet man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) manufactured by the United Kingdom and based on its predecessor Starstreak which is, by the way, also used by Ukrainian forces, thanks to the Brits.
The paratrooper was among those who had trained in the UK with British instructors to learn how to handle the Martlet which is also known under name of Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM).
He says the Martlet is even more convenient to use than a Starstreak since it has lower missile velocity – Mach 1.5 (1,800 km/h) against Mach 3 (more than 3,600 km/h). This way Martlet is easier to operate during its flight.
Before the Martlet, the air defense soldier used to operate the “Strela-10" missile mounted on a vehicle. Side note: these Soviet-era missiles have both Ukraine and russia, but the sides happen to use them with different efficiency.
The soldier also reveals russians are more careful these days about getting close to Ukrainian air defense than during the first weeks of invasion. That’s why there are less helicopters and jet aircraft getting shot than before.
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