In an unprovoked war against Ukraine, besides cruise missiles and other means of destruction, Russia is using Iranian-made combat drones (“Geran” or “Shahed”), which may cause severe damage to both civil and military infrastructure.
According to official sources of Ukrainian militaries, several hundreds of “Shaheds” are launched by Russians each month to destroy targets in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Air defences, powered with modern Western aid defence systems, shot down most of them. However, a small part achieves the goals.
For the defence of its sky, Ukrainians use several air defence systems: “Patriot”, “Nasams”, “Iris-T”, soviet era systems and small air defence groups with searchlights and machine guns. Among others, there is one specific system that combines two essential parameters: effectiveness and low price for usage – the Skynex.
The German concern Rheinmetall informed that it would supply Ukraine with two Skynex air defence systems equipped with programmable 35mm Ahead ammunition by the end of 2023.
The producer company “Rheinmetall” informed about this decision on its official website.
The Rheinmetall press service said that the success of the Gepard antiaircraft tank in Ukraine underscores the effectiveness of cannon-based air defence, especially against cruise missiles and drones.
It is noted that the Skynex cannon-based system is a modern continuation of this tradition.
Skynex is a cannon-based system designed for very close-range air defence operations. Its range of 4 kilometres allows it to cover the sky over large infrastructure facilities. Using programmable 35mm Ahead ammunition, developed by Rheinmetall precisely for this purpose, the system destroys each target it can reach with almost a 100 % probability.
Even more important is that the average cost to destroy a drone by Skynex is about 4000 EUR, while the cost of “Shahed” is over 50 000 EUR.
These two features make Skynex one of the best solutions to counter Russia’s combat drone attacks. And as drones become an indispensable tool on the battlefield in modern warfare, Skynex’s capabilities become crucial.
Generally, it means that the Ukrainian sky will be safer and more lives to be saved thanks to Germany’s military aid.
As Ukraine is the first country in the world to be armed with Skynex for actual combat operations, it is vital for the system as it can pass testing and prove its effectiveness. If any flaws in the system are found, they can be quickly identified and fixed to make it more efficient in the future.
It’s fair to say that Skynex systems will not solve all the issues with defence against Russian missile and drone attacks. As Moscow launches more and more “Shahed” drones each month, Ukraine needs more Skynex systems to cover its cities and critical infrastructure.
