military expert Kovalenko spoke about an important short-range air defense system – tsn.ua

The short-range anti-aircraft missile system MIM-72A/M48 Chaparral could well be used to defend a city like Kharkov.

This was said by Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military-political analyst of the group “Information Resistance”.

“Although the name of the Patriot air defense system is constantly mentioned like a mantra during discussions on the extremely relevant topic of air defense reinforcement, I draw attention to short-range air defense systems that exist in the world, are in use or in storage, but for one or other reason, Ukraine has not received them and nothing is known about requests for these systems,” he noted.

What is known about the short-range anti-aircraft missile system MIM-72A/M48 Chaparral

According to the expert, the Chapparal system was used in 1969, but was completely removed from the inventory of the US Army in 1997.

“At the same time, the US had 600 launchers with more than 5,300 missiles in service. Moreover, the missiles for this system were very common, as well as the AIM-9 missiles, which are still in use,” says Kovalenko.

Depending on the modification of the missile, this SAM had the ability to hit targets at a distance of up to 8 km and at an altitude of up to 3 km. The speed of the missile reaches 1.5 Mach, which makes it possible to intercept a wide range of subsonic targets – from drones to cruise missiles.

“Given the abundance of these SAM systems, they could have been an interesting option to provide coverage not only for cities in terms of short-range air defense, but also for frontline positions, especially when it comes to attack aircraft and attack helicopters,” said the spokesman. expert has given his opinion.

According to Kovalenko, effective coverage in the echelon of a city like Kharkov may require an amount of 8 units or more for these SAM systems.

“Once again I would like to emphasize that hundreds of these SAM systems have been produced and not all of them have been scrapped or sent to museums. In many countries Chaparral systems continue to serve actively, such as in Taiwan, Morocco and Egypt. They were withdrawn from service in Israel in 2003, Portugal in 2018 and Chile in 2024. Therefore, it is a very interesting example in terms of closing the needs of the echelon of a small range, which is equally critically lacking both the rear of Ukraine and the front line.” , the expert explains.

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