Ukrainian Defense Forces Strike Russian P-18-2 Prima Radar for the First Time

Operators of the 412th Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces (“Nemesis”) have executed the first successful strike on a Russian P-18-2 “Prima” radar capable of detecting stealth aircraft.

Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, released video footage of the strike.

According to him, the radar was hit using the brigade’s “Middle Strike” assets at a distance of over 100 kilometers behind the front line. The drones carried warheads weighing over 10 kilograms, leaving no chance for the lightly armored but high-value enemy system to remain operational.

Additionally, on January 12, 2026, drone operators from the 412th Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces (“Nemesis”) also struck a Tor-M2 surface-to-air missile system and a Tunguska gun-missile air defense system in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk directions.

“This makes the 9th, 10th, and 11th enemy radars and air defense systems destroyed between January 1 and 12 – strays from the enemy’s air defense network,” the commander summed up.

P-18-2 Prima Radar

The P-18-2 Prima meter-band radar was first unveiled at the Army-2019 International Military-Technical Forum in Kubinka. It is the successor to the Soviet-era P-18 Terek radar.

The P-18-2 Prima is a highly mobile, two-coordinate reconnaissance and target-acquisition radar designed to detect and track aerial objects, including those built using stealth technology, determine their coordinates, and direction-find sources of active noise jamming.

The Prima radar is mounted on a high-mobility wheeled chassis and features enhanced mobility thanks to all equipment being housed on a single vehicle. Deployment and shutdown are fully automated and take no more than five minutes.

Thanks to a high level of automation, the radar’s crew consists of only two personnel, who can operate either from the equipped cabin or from remote workstations.

The stated detection range for an aerial target with a radar cross-section of 2.6 m², with a detection probability of 0.8 and in the absence of jamming, is as follows:

• at an altitude of 3,000 meters — at least 130 km;
• at an altitude of 10,000 meters — at least 230 km;
• at an altitude of 20,000 meters — at least 320 km.

In 2023, Russian forces deployed the P-18-2 “Prima” radar near the Salyaryevo metro station in Moscow as part of efforts to strengthen air defense in and around the city.

According to Mykhailo Fedorov, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, in December 2025, drone units of the Defense Forces struck a total of 106,859 targets – 31% more than in November. In particular, 128 air defense and radar systems were destroyed, marking a historic high.