Tonight, the military used the air defense system of the FrankenSAM project for the first time in combat conditions. She shot down Shahed drone from a distance of 9 kilometers. In total, 19 out of 20 attack drones were shot down over Ukraine tonight.
Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of the Ministry of Strategic Industries, said at a briefing in Davos that this is the first use of such a system. He added that all FrankenSAM air defense systems are already deployed "on the battlefield."
What is the FrankenSAM program?
The FrankenSAM project is a hybrid air defense system jointly developed by the Pentagon, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Strategic Industries. In fact, these are three anti-aircraft missile complexes: the Soviet Buk air defense system with American RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missiles, AIM-9M air-to-air missiles in combination with Soviet radars and air defense systems based on Ukrainian old systems with Patriot elements and missiles.
An official representative of the Pentagon said that the tests of this system in October 2023 were successful. It is noted that variants of hybrid air defense systems were tested at military bases in the USA and were to be delivered to Ukraine in the fall. In December, the United States and Ukraine signed a declaration on the joint production of weapons.
- According to the results of last year, Oleksandr Kamyshin reported that the production of mortar rounds in Ukraine increased by 42 times, and artillery shells — by almost three times. Analogues of the Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 drones are also being mass-produced in Ukraine.
- Currently, the defense industry of Ukraine has 300,000 people, 500 companies, of which almost 400 are private. In 2023, 1.5% of the 4.9% increase in Ukraineʼs GDP was provided by the defense industry.