Ukrainian surprises for Russian “shaheds” are on the way
4 November 10:35
Last night, Russia terrorized Ukraine again with its drones. Over the past week, Russians launched almost 500 “shaheds” across the regions of Ukraine, and in October, more than 2,000 “shaheds” attacked the country. These figures were shared with Ukrainians this weekend by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
Ukraine is trying to find an effective countermeasure to Russian drones. The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Kovalenko, tried to add some optimism the day before, saying that new ways to shoot down the Shahedis were on the way. However, he kept the intrigue alive by not explaining what these new methods were.
The Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, Herman Smetanin, also did not say anything about new ways to shoot down the Shahed, but he did talk about cooperation with new partners.
According to him, Thales Belgium has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ukrainian defense company. This agreement provides for the joint production of missiles to counter enemy UAVs with the expected prospect of transferring technologies and components for these missiles.
The head of the Ministry of Strategic Industries did not disclose what kind of anti-UAV missile the memorandum envisages, but the DEFENSE EXPRESS suggests that it is likely to be the FZ275 LGR missile, which is already in service with the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
What is this anti-drone missile?
This is a 70-mm missile with semi-active laser homing – the FZ275 LGR has a homing unit in the head of the missile and a warhead in the middle.
Tactical and technical characteristics of the FZ275 LGR missile
range – up to 7 km;
accuracy – deviation within 1 m per 6 km;
total weight – 12.7 kg, warhead – 4.1 kg.
Also in the context of the FZ275 LGR missile, the publication reminds that just in July this year it became known that Thales is increasing the production of these missiles by 5 times and is talking about expanding to 5000 units – they want to reach such indicators next year. To scale up the production of the FZ275 LGR, a new production line was created as part of the European ASAP program.
Also, in January 2023, the German government announced the transfer of 20 pickup trucks with 70 mm launchers (Raketenwerfer 70mm auf Pick-up trucks mit Raketen) to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
How else do foreign partners help?
The day before, the American ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink, said that the United States had funded the creation of 800 mobile fire teams to fight the Shahed. According to her, these are groups created on the basis of the State Border Guard Service and the National Police. The US ambassador noted that these groups have shot down more than 200 racist drones to date.
