The official channel of the Ukrainian Navy published the defeat of enemy kamikaze drones in the Odessa region on February 11, 2024.
Based on this footage, OSINT analysts made an assumption that this was the first public use of the Vampire missile launchers with guided rockets APKWS, reported by Defence Express. Their delivery was supposed to take place at the end of last year.
It does appear that this is the first onboard footage released showing a US-supplied VAMPIRE SAM system in Ukrainian service downing a Russian Shahed with a laser-guided APKWS missile. https://t.co/wxS2EJSFDmpic.twitter.com/VMT2vHP9Bu
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) February 12, 2024
The Vampire consists of an opto-location station equipped with a thermal imager and a launch block for guided APKWS projectiles. In addition, the opto-location station also serves as a laser target designator, as APKWS missiles are laser-guided. The maximum cost of one APKWS rocket is known to be up to $40.6 thousand per unit, which is important for the cost-effectiveness relative to countering kamikaze drones, especially in terms of replacing the need to sometimes use expensive rockets for Patriot systems.
Comments (0)
There are no comments for now