New weapons to protect the sky: what you need to know about Skynex air defense systems to be deployed in Ukraine
A battery of the Skynex air defense system manufactured by Rheinmetall Italia was delivered to Ukraine. The complex was delivered on December 31 as part of a USD 174 million deal funded by the German government.
This was reported by Defence News on January 26.
The contract was signed in December 2022. The first battery has already arrived in Ukraine, and the second will be delivered in March this year.
“We have been told that Skynex is working well in Ukraine, and feedback to further improve the system will be very important,” said Alessandro Ercolani, the company’s CEO.
What you need to know about Skynex
The Skynex anti-aircraft system is an evolution of the Sky Guard system, which includes a radar with a range of 50 km, a command post and four guns, each equipped with electro-optical sensors and tracking radar. The guns are capable of firing 1,000 35-mm shells per minute, hitting a target at a distance of four kilometers. When approaching the target, the system’s munitions open, ejecting hundreds of small tungsten cylinders that form a destructive cloud.
To ensure that the projectiles open at the right time, their speed is monitored by a sensor as they leave the gun barrel, and the electronics in the barrel program the projectile opening time accordingly. The range of target destruction reaches 4 km
According to Ercolani, Skynex was developed to combat, among other things, unmanned aerial vehicles and barrage munitions.
“The advantage of the system is that it was designed to deal with small, low and slow threats, and it is cost-effective compared to using a missile costing millions to destroy a drone,” he added.
