most combats confirmed aircraft losses over ukraine appear to have been downed
by bazooka-like man-portable air-defense system also known as man-pads including the us stinger
or russian igla systems man pads are short-range heat-seeking weapons that are rarely effective
above 10 000 to 15 000 feet in altitude as a result they are more effective against
helicopters and less effective against modern aeroplanes which can fly up to forty thousand to
sixty thousand feet in the air but while manpads have indeed brought down a bunch of helicopters
and a weird drone or two they've also claimed a number of jets
because russia and ukraine lack precision weapons pilots must descend into range to correctly
unleash unguided bombs and rockets pilots on both sides may be flying low to see targets
shrouded by clouds or believe long-range high-altitude surface-to-wear missile systems
are more dangerous than low-altitude defenses while the ukrainian military kept numerous igla
and earlier strela man pads in 2022 it's received likely over 5 000 additional manpads
from the united states germany and other nato states the united kingdom which has previously
given at least 3 615 n-law anti-tank missiles is now pushing to deliver much longer range
javelin missiles and its own customized man pads the superfast fails star streak
can uk starstreak missiles and old soviet air defenses help ukraine win the air war
and with that on this video u.s military news channel will discuss how to win the
air war with russia watch this video until the end and give your opinion
star streak high velocity missile
on march 9th uk defense secretary ben wallace told parliament that london had decided into
giving ukraine star streak high velocity man portable air defense system or man pads missiles
as a defensive weapon the device will help the ukrainian force better defend its airspace
so in response to ukrainian requests the government has taken the decision
to explore the donation of star streak high velocity man portable anti-air missiles star
streak is unlike any other manpads after the missile's two rocket motors have burned out three
two pound tungsten alloy darts are fired to boost the likelihood of a kill after launch
the missile tracks an aircraft with two lasers focused by the operator until hit
star streak outperforms the proven stinger in peak speeds mach 4 altitude 16 000 feet
and range 4.35 miles no flares shaft decoys or radar jamming can defend the missile from
the laser targeting systems in addition it will reach its intended target in as little as five or
six seconds after launch giving an aircraft too little time to dodge or deploy weapons
keeping the laser on quick or evasive airplanes on the other hand may be a challenge star streak
may take more training than stingers however some previous operators claim
that even with only a few hours of training a basic level of competency may be acquired
regardless star streaks resistance to typical anti-aircraft countermeasures should provide a
slightly increased engagement envelope and a higher probability of a kill anecdotal
evidence suggests that for every man-pads hit in ukraine many more are launched that miss
star streak systems are available in single shot portable launchers three shot launchers mounted on
a stand this is the lightweight multiple launcher and several vehicle mounted variants including the
stormer armored vehicle the lasers in the ladder models have some degree of automatic tracking
what man pads has ukraine already received
it is estimated that ukraine has received at least 2 000
of the fim-92 stinger missiles these have been given out in the following order
500 stinger missiles from germany 200 stinger missiles and 50 launchers sent by the netherlands
300 stinger systems from denmark hundreds more stingers from the us estonia and lithuania
the stinger combines infrared and ultraviolet imaging to track down targets while avoiding
decoys it can hit targets up to three miles away at heights of up to twelve 12 500 feet at mach 2.5
mujahideen militants famously used it to shoot down soviet aircraft
over afghanistan in the 1980s however the most effective man pads in ukraine is that piorvan
or grom2m a polish domestic weapon based on the soviet igla missile providing a larger warhead
a more sensitive infrared seeker and a new motor pure run has a maximum speed of only mach 2
and could strike targets at 13 000 feet up to four miles away
the pr run is believed to have shot down an su-25 frog foot and many russian assault helicopters
additionally two thousand seven hundred nine k-32m strela 2m sa-7b man pads had been shipped
to ukraine by germany the strela 2 heat m seeker can only lock onto jets from behind
if flying at a reasonably low altitude there are several drawbacks like a limiting range
of 2.6 miles and a maximum size of 7000 7500 feet but it's more adaptable than helicopters
what about longer range air defenses
despite manpad's success in ukraine data suggests russian jets are increasingly
using cruise missiles and imprecise high altitude bombing to circumvent manpads
in that case ukraine may need to upgrade its vehicle-borne medium and high-altitude
sam batteries which have taken some losses but allegedly remain in majority intact according to
the pentagon following the failure of a plan to transfer polish mig-29 planes to ukraine
washington appears to be exploring for ways to transfer soviet air defense systems
still in friendly government's inventories systems that ukraine's military already knows how to use
bulgaria greece and romania have a wide range of such weapons for intercepting nimble fighters
greece has the s-300 pmu-1 a nato code name sa-20 gargoyle and 48 n6e missiles with a range of 93
miles as well as 9m 96 e1 and e2 missiles with a range of 25 or 75 miles these would be far more
capable than the ukrainian s 300 pts and pss but would also require training and familiarization
slovakia's s 300 pmu system the sa-10f uses a longer-range sub-variant of the
series missiles used in ukraine's s-300s
the ukrainian military uses the medium-range book missile system to attack high-flying aircraft
but any transaction would be extremely difficult to negotiate
given finland has retired buck m1 systems in storage
short-range tor m1 the sa-15 gauntlet and 9k33 osa the sa-8 gecko systems can reach further than
man pat's as can medium-range s-125 petra the sa-3 goa and 2k12 cup the sa-6 gainful systems
ukraine has s125s and tors in service and 2k12s in stock but not operational it is possible that
nato may acquire zsu-234s strela tents the sa-13 and strelop1 the sa-9 mobile anti-air weapons
but these would arguably offer little benefit over the man pads currently being transferred
you