They call him the “killer of drones“. Ukrainian forces will be able to convert ground vehicles into missile launchers after receiving a portable system, included in the latest aid package provided by the United States and announced by President Joe Biden on August 24.
The portable missile launcher is called Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment (VAMPIRE) and comes from L3Harris, a North American weapons manufacturer. It includes a system that can be easily installed by two people, in two hours, in the back of a pickup truck, or any vehicle that allows it, and is described as Effective for attacking ground and air targets. “Installation can be completed in two hours and performed by two people,” reads the manufacturer’s website.
But most likely, VAMPIRE will be used, above all, to attack unmanned aerial systems, widely used by Russian forces, hence the nickname “drone killer”. “It’s a kinetic system that uses small missiles essentially to shoot down unmanned aerial systems out of the sky,” explained Colin Kahl, US Undersecretary of Defense.
On August 25, Paul Swiergosz, a spokesman for L3Harris, told Insider that the company expected to receive a formal order from the US government in the coming days specifying how many VAMPIRE units should be shipped to Ukraine. The company estimates that it can deliver in nine months.
A four-barrel missile launcher allows you to hit multiple targets.
Until now, the United States has mainly been supplying Russia with Stinger missiles, which can be fired by a single person. The VAMPIRE system is a kind of gets better from the previous one: with four guns, it allows hitting multiple targets without having to reload, being able to cover a larger area and more quickly, compared to the ability of troops on the ground with shoulder missiles.
“It’s a significant capability,” said Stacie Pettyjohn of the Center for a New American Security. “Having a type of system that is so modular and can be installed in any type of vehicle, therefore very mobile, and then use it to eliminate these drones it will improve the survivability of the Ukrainian forces.”
The new missile launchers will make it possible to deal with the massive use of drones by Russia, which since the beginning of the invasion has focused on aerial surveillance missions, which then allow it to launch artillery strikes against Ukrainian forces.
Source: Observadora
