As Ukraine - Russia conflict nears almost 1 year, one thing is clear,
the bloodbath is not going to stop anytime soon. The Russians have launched massive missile & drone
attacks against not only Ukrainian military targets but also civilian infrastructure.
Ukrainian forces have had some success in intercepting Russian aerial assets,
but they need more air defense capabilities.
The latest American package may help with this.
Ukraine is to receive an undisclosed number of radar-guided RIM-7 Sea
Sparrow surface-to-air missiles or SAMs. Interestingly, the missile will be put onto
the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ existing Soviet-era Buk air defense systems.
It is believed that American and Ukrainian specialists have
been already working on such an adaptation in the background.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how American RIM-7 Sea Sparrow integrated into soviet
origin Buk air defense system could help Ukraine? Let’s get started.
RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is a U.S. ship-borne short-range anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapon system,
primarily intended for defense against anti-ship missiles. The system was developed in the early
1960s from the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile as a lightweight "point-defense"
weapon that could be retrofitted to existing ships as quickly as possible,
often in place of existing gun-based anti-aircraft weapons.
In this incarnation, it was a very simple system guided by a manually aimed radar illuminator.
The launch platform is required to have a radar to detect and track the target,
and then it needs to 'illuminate' or 'paint' it with a continuous-wave radar beam for engagement.
The missile is fired toward the target, and once illuminated, the sensitive seeker in its nose
homes into the radar's particular signal as the missile streak toward the target.
The missile follows the radiation reflected from the target by the illuminator either
until it impacts or passes close enough for the proximity fuse to be triggered.
The missile has a range of 19 km or about 12 miles and has a maximum speed of Mach 3.5
Taiwan operates ground-based Sea Sparrows as part of the
Skyguard SHORAD or Short range air defense system.
Five hundred missiles entered service in 1991 and are deployed on trailers with four box launchers.
The Buk air defense missile system was developed to replace the previous Kub.
Its industrial designation is 9K37.
Development of this system commenced in 1972 and was meant to be a successor to the Kub-M3.
It entered service with the Soviet Army in 1980.
The Buk has been exported to many countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union,
a number of air defense systems were passed on to successor states. Currently,
Russia operates around 350 of these systems and Ukraine also has several of these.
A standard Buk battalion consists of a command vehicle, a target acquisition radar (TAR) vehicle,
six transporter erector launchers and radar (TELAR) vehicles and three transporter erector
launcher (TEL) vehicles. A Buk missile battery consists of two TELAR and one TEL vehicle.
The main sensor is 9S18M1 Kupol-M Snow Drift target acquisition radar which has a range
of 160 km or 100 miles and is supplemented by 9S35M1 Fire Dome target tracking radar
which operates in H/I band and has a range of 85 km or around 52 miles.
A Buk TELAR vehicle is fitted with radar, a digital computer,
a missile erector and launcher, friend or foe identification system.
It is operated by a crew of four and carries four missiles.
The radar of the Buk TELAR vehicle searches for targets, tracks them and guides missiles on them.
So, if required each TELAR vehicle can operate autonomously.
The radar detects aircraft flying at altitudes over 3 km or 1.8 miles at
a range of 80 km or 50 miles. The detection range is reduced
to 40 km or 25 miles when aircraft fly at 30-100 m above the ground.
It is likely that the radar of the Buk TELAR will somehow be used to
paint the target for RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missiles.
Importantly, RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is highly adaptable for different types of launchers that
include automated & manually aimed box launchers, vertical launchers as well as modular launchers.
There is a possibility that the adaptation will allow a combination of missiles to be loaded,
with the Sea Sparrows being loaded together with 9M38 series missiles
that the Buk generally uses to make the most of their respective capabilities.
If Ukrainian and American engineers can get RIM-7 Sea Sparrow integrated into Buk,
then the combination will be pretty useful. This is not the first time such an arrangement
will be attempted - AGM-88 HARM or High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile
designed for Western aircraft has been successfully fired from Soviet Mig-29.
RIM-7 would be able to provide excellent defensive capability against many of the
kinds of threats that Ukraine now faces which include subsonic cruise missiles,
several kinds of drones, helicopters, and low-flying manned aircraft.
While the RIM-7 has seen little service in ground-based applications,
since the basic working would remain the same, the effectiveness is not expected to reduce.
While the Skyguard used by Taiwan was designed for defending fixed installations,
putting the same missile onto the highly mobile Buk transporter erector
launcher and radar (TELAR) vehicle also makes it much more flexible.
In this configuration, it will be able to able to defend high-value static targets
but also move alongside armor and infantry to provide aerial cover.
The ability to rapidly relocate also makes it much more survivable and
enables implementation of ‘hit and run’ tactics.