Since the beginning of the war, NATO and Ukraine have made significant strides in fusing Soviet-era platforms with Western missiles. This suggested it was only a matter of time that they would collaborate for a fresh and acutely needed weapon like anti-air missiles
U.S, European companies and Ukraine are developing a replacement for the Russian S-300 SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile) system and the R-27 AAM (Air-to-Air Missile) Kyiv’s military uses. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revealed this on the sidelines of the meeting of the 24th Ukraine Defense Contact Group contact group on Ukraine at the Ramstein air base in Germany.
“Meanwhile, with help from several European companies, the United States is working with Ukraine to design and build a substitute for the S-300 surface-to-air missile system and the R-27 air-to-air missile,” Austin said. While the missile’s technical and design configurations are not known, some informed guesses can be made, based on the defense-technical cooperation between Ukraine and NATO since Feb. 2022.
Reports on their military-technological cooperation suggested it was only a matter of time that they would collaborate for a fresh and acutely needed weapon like anti-air missiles. Ukraine’s U.S. and European-origin SAMs like the Patriot, NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile), IRIS-T and SAMP/T are used sparingly in its ‘air denial’ role.
Ukrainian fighter MiG-29
Armed with R-27 and R-73 missiles#ukrainecounteroffensive#Ukraine #Verbove #Bryansk pic.twitter.com/B4GOWayyZH
— The Global 202 (@theglobal202) September 7, 2023
Kyiv has often raised alarms over the stockpiles running low after being expended on shooting down Russian Kh-101 ALCM (Air-Launched Cruise Missile), Iskander tactical ballistic missile, Kalibr sea-launched cruise missile and the Geran-2 loitering munitions.
R-27 and S-300
The Soviet-era S-300 continues to be the mainstay of Russia’s long and medium-range air defense, with Ukraine itself 25 to 30 S-300PT/PS variants in variants divisions. “But the main problem today is the acute shortage of anti-aircraft missiles,” since Ukraine “no longer produces” the 5V55 missiles, according to Militarnyi.
As The Aviationist reported about a Ukrainian pilot who shed light on aerial battles with the RuAF (Russian Air Force), Moscow on the other hand has lost many S-300s but still “abundant” quantities of the missiles. Since 2020, Ukraine has been “attempting” to “master” the 5V55’s production and replacing the original 48D6 solid-fuel engine with a domestically developed one. It even passed a series of ground-tests.
Meanwhile, the R-27 AAM, another Soviet-era missile, is available in two leading variants, the R-27ER and the R-27ET. The ET has an infrared seeker that shortens its range. The ER meanwhile has a semi-active radar seeker and a passive radar receiver.
“The latter requires a continuous link from the launching fighter. This can be lost if the pilot switches off the radar or even turns the jet’s nose away, causing the missile to miss,” said a serving Air Commodore-rank Indian Air Force pilot who flew the MiG-29. The launching fighter is also exposing itself with its radar running while in a straight, level flight. In 2021, Ukraine presented its “UP-277” medium-range AAM with a radar seeker that could replace the R-27, Militarnyi added.
Military cooperation since February 2022
Since the war began in February 2022, NATO and Ukraine have made significant strides in fusing Soviet-era platforms with Western weapons. The most notable was fusing Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG ALCMs (Air-Launched Cruise Missile) from the Su-24 Fencer fighter-bomber, that delivered some notable and painful strikes on Russian ground positions in and around Crimea. Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29s and Su-27s also fire the AGM-88 HARM (High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile).
Other munitions include the GBU-39 SDB (Small Diameter Bomb) and the French AASM Hammer. These mergers have been undertaken by developing special launchers, carrier racks, electrical wirings and possibly data buses with fresh codes and algorithms for the Russian radars to ‘talk’ to the Western missiles.
Southern Ukraine, a Ukrainian S-300 from the 208th Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade downs a Russian cruise missile. pic.twitter.com/dE3oEWNoHU
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) February 17, 2023
Ukrainian and U.S. “FrankenSAM” projects reported since October 2023, have seen older and legacy RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and AIM-9M Sidewinder AAMs being combined with Soviet-era Buk launchers. Other examples include putting together Patriot interceptor missiles with older Ukrainian radar systems.
Russia also claimed in February 2023 that Ukraine’s Soviet-era Strizh-141 high-speed reconnaissance drone had been modified with new navigation systems by defense major Raytheon.
NATO ISR support for Ukrainian USV and UAV strikes into Russia also gave significant insight into Moscow’s radar technology, deployment, frequencies and radar profiles of its fighter-bombers like the Su-34 Fullback. These must have been exhaustively studied by the presence of NATO analysts and advisors.
The mounds of data will inform the missiles’ seeker and propulsion configuration, customized to kill Russian planes, with feedback from Ukrainian AD crews. It is also possible for the operator interfaces in the control stations to be more culturally Ukrainian, at least ergonomic-wise, for ease of use and to reduce training and orientation time. Engineers from Ukraine’s state-defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom and Luch Design Bureau can be expected to have a major participation.
Challenges
If it pans out well, the undertaking might spawn into a rare, successful wartime weapons development collaboration between the US and its Allies, especially when both are reviving their defense industries with massive investments and production lines for conventional wars.
Components, assemblies, subsystems and elements like sensors and actuators would be identified and acquired from proven supply chains to aid manufacturing scalability and operationalization. We also cannot discard the possibility of the missiles being made with open systems architecture, modular designs and 3D-printing/additive manufacturing, that have become buzzwords in arms development, as militaries place adaptability, mass-producibility over technological sophistry and ruggedness.
However, it would be difficult to imagine these being manufactured fully within Ukraine, given the threat of Russian stand-off fires on its air bases and defense industry. It would be ironical to see the weapon becoming a casualty of the very missiles or jets it would be meant to destroy. It therefore makes sense for NATO to manufacture it and transport it into Ukraine.
Indeed, NATO adopting the whole system or a slightly advanced derivative for its own use is also likely, as a stop-gap arrangement until it replenishes its arms stockpiles following donations to Ukraine.
Parth Satam’s career spans a decade and a half between two dailies and two defense publications. He believes war, as a human activity, has causes and results that go far beyond which missile and jet flies the fastest. He therefore loves analyzing military affairs at their intersection with foreign policy, economics, technology, society and history. The body of his work spans the entire breadth from defense aerospace, tactics, military doctrine and theory, personnel issues, West Asian, Eurasian affairs, the energy sector and Space.
