The first Ukrainian anti-submarine corvette "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" F211 entered sea trials, we previously talked about it. The ship was built according to the design of the Turkish Ada-class anti-submarine corvettes, project MILGEM. The ship is due to join the Ukrainian fleet in 2024; a total of two ships will be built at a cost of $256 million. The ship is armed with a 76 mm OTO Melara Super Rapid gun, two 12.7 mm Aselsan STAMP machine guns, a 35 mm Aselsan Gokdeniz anti-aircraft artillery mount and a MICA VC air defense system with 16 missiles. Anti-submarine weapons are represented by 324 mm torpedo tubes "Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes". The ship is armed with Harpoon or Atmaca anti-ship missiles. Armament may change in the future. The ship has a speed of up to 29 knots, with a cruising range of 3,500 nautical miles, a cruising endurance of 10 days, with supplies of 21 days. It is possible to have an S-70B Seahawk helicopter. Displacement corvette "Getman Ivan Mazepa" 2300 tons, power plant - one gas turbine and two diesel engines. The ship's crew is 93 people.
Ukraine has quadrupled the production of the Stugna-P anti-tank missile system, this was announced by the Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine Alexander Kamyshin. The Stugna-P ATGM was adopted by the Ukrainian Army in 2011. We can say this is a successful development of the military industrial complex of Ukraine. The ATGM is exported under the name Skif; it is a Ukrainian-Belarusian development. The ATGM is equipped with a semi-automatic laser beam guidance system. It is also possible to control the rocket from a remote control from a closed position. The missile can be programmed to attack from above the target, from a height of 10 meters, or directly. When attacked from above, the missile may miss, American experts reported this to Forbes. The main advantage of the ATGM is the use of a wired remote control for the missile. The remote control allows the ATGM crew to work from a closed position via a television channel, this is convenient and the ATGM crew is safe. The ATGM flight range, when using 152 mm RK-2M-K missiles, is up to 5500 meters, penetration is up to 1100 mm of homogeneous steel. When using a 130 mm RK-2S missile, armor penetration is about 800 mm. The weight of the ATGM with the missile is 90 kg. The price of the Stugna-P ATGM is about 20 thousand dollars.
Ukrainian fleet exercises on Finnish Watercat M11 boats. The Ukrainian Navy conducted an exercise on the Dnieper River. Finnish landing assault boats Marine Alutech Watercat M11 of the Uisko 300 and Uisko 200 series were used in the exercises. The displacement of the Watercat M11 boat is 10 tons, the power plant is diesel with a power of 660 hp. and a water cannon, lifting capacity 2.5 tons, speed when fully loaded up to 56 km/h. The Watercat M11 boat can be equipped with a 12.7 mm machine gun and a 40 mm grenade launcher. During the exercises, they practiced the conduct of combat operations by river forces, including as part of boat groups, interaction with units operating on the river banks, and the delivery of personnel to certain sections of the coast. Also used in the exercises were the Ukrainian small armored artillery boat of Project 58155 type “Gyurza-M” and the American landing boat SHERP the SHUTTLE.
Ukrainian Su-24 launches SCALP-EG cruise missiles. The only footage to date of the launch of Ukrainian Strom Shadow / SCALP-EG cruise missiles developed by the French company Matra and the English British Aerospace, now produced by the European company MBDA, has been published. The SCALP-EG missiles are launched from a modernized Soviet-made Su-24MR frontline bomber. The Strom Shadow / SCALP-EG missiles have a range of about 560 km when launched from an aircraft.
The first two Danish F-16AM fighters have arrived in Ukraine. The aircraft were personally presented by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vasylkiv airfield, 40 km from Kyiv. The aircraft's side numbers have been obscured, but thanks to photos from the flights, they were identified as UA 80-3596 and UA 80-3599. Both Ukrainian fighters were built under license at the Belgian aircraft manufacturer SABCA, and in 1982 they were transferred to Denmark under the numbers E-596 and E-599. Denmark plans to transfer a total of 79 F-16 fighters to Ukraine. The estimated service life of the F-16A/B airframe is 8,000 hours, while all "European" F-16A/Bs have a flight time of 7,000 to 7,500 hours to date. The Ukrainian F-16 fighters are equipped with medium-range AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles and short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. The aircraft have external fuel tanks. Presumably, the F-16's task will be to support the remaining Ukrainian Su-24MR and MiG-29 aircraft, as well as launch Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missiles. Ukrainian F-16 pilots received JHMCS helmet-mounted targeting sights, which allows the pilot to shoot where his gaze is directed regardless of the direction of the helmet. The aircraft are equipped with the Terma PIDS+ and ECIPS+ missile attack warning system, with a jamming device and the release of additional heat traps. The F-16 fighters transferred to Ukraine will be based at the Limanske airfield in the Odessa region on the border with Romania.
Ukrainian M2A2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, made in the US, will receive factory-installed "Mangal" protection. The new protection will be manufactured by Rinat Akhmetov's Ukrainian company Metinvest. Screens for Ukrainian T-64 and T-72 tanks and American-made M1A1SA Abrams tanks have also been launched into production. It is worth noting that the Russian army also uses this type of protection, equipping tanks and infantry fighting vehicles with it. This type of protection is often criticized for its appearance, but it protects equipment from being hit by FPV drones. The protection consists of lattice screens weighing about 430 kg, which protect the combat vehicle from the sides and from above. The Ukrainian version of the "Mangal" type protection will differ from the Russian one, in which the lattice screens will be sliding. How and where the sliding of the lattices is implemented is not reported.
Footage of the testing of the Ukrainian jet drone "Palyanytsya". The drone "Palyanytsya" can be called a rocket drone, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reported on its testing. According to him, the missile program of Ukraine includes a cluster called "Palyanytsya". Within its framework, three products are being developed, one of them is the drone "Palyanytsya". This rocket drone is much faster than Ukrainian long-range drones, it is already in use, he also noted. Technical data on the drone is not reported, the drone is equipped with a simple turbojet engine
An episode of testing of a new FPV drone armed with the Soviet RPG-18 Mukha grenade launcher has been published in Ukraine. Technical details and who is testing the drone are not reported. Judging by the characteristics of the RPG-18, the drone will be able to hit targets at a distance of up to 200 meters. Taking into account the weight of the grenade launcher, the flight time of such a drone will be about 10 minutes. For aimed shooting, the drone will have to fly close to the target. The RPG-18 can penetrate armor up to 300 mm thick.
Data on the supply of weapons and "related property" to Ukraine from the United States. US spending on military aid to Ukraine amounted to about $55 billion. Data is shown from February 2022 to September 2024. The list of military property is quite impressive, in the first part of the video the information is in Russian, in the second part in English. Judging by the data, US spending on the purchase of military property for Ukraine and in other countries is included. On March 2, 2022, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that 19 countries supply weapons to Kyiv, 10 countries provide macro-financial assistance, 22 countries provide humanitarian aid.
The Ukrainian army has published footage of an agricultural drone of an unknown model delivering a BAD.2 robot dog. Earlier, the Ukrainian army received 30 BAD.2 robot dogs produced by the British company Brit Alliance. The BAD.2 robot dogs are used by the 28th Brigade for cargo delivery and reconnaissance. The BAD.2 military robots are equipped with heat-resistant camouflage from the German company Concamo, which makes them less noticeable to thermal imagers. BAD.2 robots reach speeds of up to 15 kilometers per hour, operate within a radius of 3.5 kilometers from the operator, and have a working time of up to five hours. The cost of BAD.2 robot dogs, depending on the modification, ranges from 4 to 8 thousand euros.
Rare footage of the training operation of the 35-mm Oerlikon automatic cannon, Skynex air defense system, has been published in Ukraine. The Skynex air defense system was developed by the German arms company Rheinmetall in 2021. The Oerlikon Revolver Gun Mk3 combat module fires at targets with AHEAD programmable ammunition. The cost of one AHEAD projectile is about 4,000 euros. The Skynex anti-aircraft system is equipped with an X-band radar. The firing range of the Oerlikon cannon is about 4,500 meters, it can hit targets at altitudes of up to 3,500 meters. The cost of the Skynex air defense system is about $ 91 million for 4 units, Ukraine received two of them, now there is one left.
The 47th separate mechanized brigade "Magura" of the Ukrainian army demonstrated modified American M1A1 SA Abrams tanks with new protection. On the areas of the tank not covered by the American dynamic protection ARAT, additional blocks of the Soviet dynamic protection "Contact-1" were installed. Also on the roof of the M1A1 Abrams tank, protection from drones was installed, in the form of a folding "barbecue", made in the form of a "shell", produced by the Ukrainian company Metinvest.
The CEO of the German military company Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, announced the start of work in Ukraine, the first plant for the production of German IFV Lynx. It is worth noting that many experts doubt this, since in the current situation, opening a plant is quite risky. Perhaps the plants are located in neighboring countries. According to Papperger, the second military plant will also start working soon. The production of the first ten Lynx IFVs is planned to begin at the end of this year. Rheinmetall also plans to open a plant for the production of gunpowder, ammunition and air defense systems. Earlier, it was reported that a joint Ukrainian-German enterprise Rheinmetall was opening to repair IFV Marder 1A3 and Leopard 1A5 tanks.
Footage of the Ukrainian PD-2 UAV in flight has been published. The PD-2 UAV has been produced by UkrSpecSystems since 2019. The PD-2 UAV has a reconnaissance version, a modular reconnaissance version with three types of takeoff and landing, and a kamikaze drone version. There is also a PD-2 Gekata version for searching for radar, air defense, and electronic reconnaissance. The PD-2 VTOL drone version takes off and lands vertically. PD-2 drones have a thermal imager and cameras with 30x zoom, control is via an encrypted channel, and they can also be used as communication repeaters. The drone is controlled at a range of up to 180 km. The PD-2 FW UAV in the kamikaze drone version is equipped with a gasoline engine and has a flight speed of up to 140 km / h at a range of up to 1300 km, flight time up to 10 hours. The drone has a payload of 11 to 19 kg. The cost of the Ukrainian UAV PD-2 is about 300 thousand dollars, for 2 drones and a control center.
An episode of work and evacuation of a T-64 tank, a Danish mine-clearing vehicle HYDREMA 910 MCV, by the Ukrainian army. The minesweeper was developed by the Croatian company DOK-ING and the Danish Hydrema and has been produced since 1996. The HYDREMA 910 MCV mine-clearing vehicle was used by the United States to clear air bases in Afghanistan, it was well received and 41 units were purchased. The Russian Emergencies Ministry also purchased one vehicle and used it in Chechnya in 2001. It is also used by India, Singapore and other countries. The vehicle can be controlled manually using a joystick or automatically on autopilot. The 18-ton vehicle is designed to defuse anti-tank and anti-personnel mines containing up to 10 kg of explosives. The vehicle's mine-clearing system is equipped with a block with 72 chains and an armored deflector screen to protect against explosions and shrapnel.
After the appearance of the Russian FPV drone "Prince Vandal Novgorodsky", controlled via fiber optic cable, Ukraine also began to equip its units with similar drones. The video shows various Ukrainian models of drones controlled via fiber optic cable, including large agrodrones like "Baba Yaga". The advantages of fiber optic drones are invulnerability to electronic warfare, the ability to fly low above the ground and fly inside shelters. Disadvantages include a smaller combat load of the drone, the need to plan a route and take into account the terrain, shorter flight range, and an experienced operator is also required.
Several models of fiber optic drones have already appeared in Ukraine, one of them is the drone "Khizhak RebOFF" from 3DTech. Now the Ukrainian drone "Khizhak RebOFF" is capable of flying a distance of up to 10 km, with a warhead from 900 grams to 2 kilograms, it is planned to improve the characteristics of the drones. Now it is inferior in characteristics to the Russian drone "Prince Vandal Novgorodsky", its flight range reaches 20 km. Also in Ukraine they use German drones of the company HIGHCAT and other drones. The price of a drone on a fiber optic cable is on average about 500 euros.
Mobile air defense units of Ukraine have begun testing ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft artillery mounts with remote control. The ZU-23-2 is capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 3 km, and is also used to work on ground targets.
The 23-mm twin anti-aircraft mount was adopted in 1960 and is still actively used by many armies.
