Russia for the first time claims an attack by Ukraine with unique “MALD guided missiles”
For the first time, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the destruction of two MALD missiles launched by Ukraine. This is stated in last week’s report.
“Aircraft of the Aerospace Forces and air defense systems destroyed two MALD air guided missiles during the week […],” the statement said.
An interesting fact is that the Russians boast about shooting down false targets that are designed for this purpose.
ADM-160 “MALD” is a kind of hybrid between a drone and a missile. They are launched from aircraft and play the role of “decoys” to distract the enemy and detect its air defense systems. The range of such missiles is 460-570 km, depending on the modification.
Ukraine’s use of these munitions first became known in May 2023, around the same time that Kyiv began using Storm Shadow missiles at the front. In December, Russian propagandists claimed to have found fragments of this ammunition on the left bank of the Kherson region.
However, it remains a mystery when exactly Ukraine received MALD. After all, the United States did not officially transfer ammunition to Kyiv. In addition, it is not known what type of aircraft Ukraine can use to launch them – in the United States, F-16s are used for this purpose.
