HISTORY
A moody night shot of a Mi-8 under preparations at a forward-field base.
the air it can hit the targets behind the
horizon, impossible for the traditional
gunnery.
In case the Ukrainians receive these
weapons, they will be able to fire them
from the M142 HIMARS and M270 MLRS
rocket launchers already in their arsenal.
Currently, they only have rockets with
70 km range. Using the GLSDB
ammunition, based on the current front
lines, they will be able to hit the whole
occupied region of Luhanks, Donetsk,
Zaporozhye and Kherson regions and
the upper third of Crimea. The Russians
will be forced to relocate their bases,
fuel, and ammunition dumps practically
outside of the Ukrainian territory. Not
even the moving trains and ships will be
safe from these gliding bombs. At last,
GLSDB is priced more favorably - it costs
40,000 USD as opposed to 1 million USD
for an ATACMS rocket.
Sea Sparrow fired from the ground
Soon enough another AA defense system
will reach Ukraine – and let’s admit,
A spectacular shot of an unguided missiles firing from a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter.
it is urgently needed due to the continued
Russian missile attacks on the Ukrainian
infrastructure. Following the systems
such as Patriot, IRIS-T or NASAMS, part
of those has been already delivered to
Ukraine, in January the USA announced
that one of their military aid packages
will include Sea Sparrow rockets.
This weapon, used for the ship’s AA
defense, were modified for the ground
deployment in Ukraine. RIM-7 missiles
were developed in 1960s based on the
air-to-air AIM-7 Sparrow rockets. While
those were later replaced by AIM-120
AMRAAM missiles, Sea Sparrow rockets
development continued simultaneously.
They are still used today resembling the
original Sparrow only by the name.
Sea Sparrow rockets were modified to
be used in the modern vertical launch
systems. They weigh 230 kilos out of
which the warhead represents 41 kilos.
Its airspeed is 4250 kph and range 19
kilometers. Besides the aircraft, it can
destroy the cruising missiles and certain
types of rockets. They are radar guided.
Economics professor Oleh Fedirets Ph.D. became an anti-aircraft gunner near Bakhmut.
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INFO Eduard
The Ukrainians will launch them from
Buk systems modified for this purpose.
The transfer of three reconnaissance
NATO aircraft, known as AWACS, from
Germany to Romania can be considered
as an indirect form of support. It took
place on January 1, and they are to remain
near Ukrainian border for at least several
weeks.
AWACS is the designation of one of the
systems these aircraft carry on board.
They are known to public under this name
however the official designation is AEW&C
which means Airborne Early Warning and
Control. For this purpose, NATO uses
Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft operating
from Geilenkirchen base in the Western
Germany. USA and NATO reconnaissance
aircraft were gathering the information
even before the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Since then, they have been flying outside
of the Ukrainian airspace over Romania
and the Black Sea. They are capable to
find out when and how many rockets
and cruising missiles the Russians
fired. The operational space however is
approximately 2,000 kilometers from the
German base, distance the aircraft have
to cover each way. After the transfer to
the Romanian airbase in Otopeni near
Burcharest, the flight to the UkrainianRomanian border is approximately 200
kilometers long. The time they can spend
on their mission expanded significantly
as well.
Secretary of State perished
Most of the aircraft losses is linked to
the intense fighting in Bakhmut area. The
Ukrainians reported several helicopters
(especially Ka-52) and aircraft (Su-25)
shot down however their wrecks have
not been visually confirmed. Only several
losses of the drones could be verified.
Su-25SM wreck carrying the bort number
“blue 15” and registration RF-95152 was
found in the Kherson area. The aircraft
had been lost earlier but the images of
its wreck were published only on January
March 2023