Hybrid Kub and Buk SAM Launchers Used to Shoot Down Jet-Shaheds

To shoot down Russian jet-powered Shaheds, Ukrainian air defense forces used a hybrid of a Kub system launcher and a Buk firing unit.

The 156th Maksym Kryvonis Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment demonstrated how such a pairing operates in combat.

The joint use of a Kub launcher and a Buk self-propelled firing unit within an integrated air defense network is based on the similar architecture of these systems.

This partially addresses one of the Kub system’s main limitations— the lack of an autonomous target illumination and guidance radar. For the Buk SAM system, it addresses missile availability.

The Buk SAM system’s self-propelled firing unit features an integrated radar that detects and tracks targets, including aerial objects, at significantly greater ranges and transmits their coordinates.

How the Kub and Buk SAM launchers hybrid works:

• The Buk self-propelled firing unit detects the target or receives target designation.
• It then locks onto the target for automatic tracking and continuously illuminates it with radar.
• It sends a command to the 2P25 Kub launcher equipped with 3M9 missiles.
• The 3M9 missile flies autonomously toward the target, after which its homing head locks onto the illumination signal reflected from the target by the Buk firing unit.

“This hybrid has performed very well in destroying aerial targets. The Kub and Buk pairing alone has accounted for around 20 aerial targets,” the military personnel said.

Most of them were Russian Shahed jet-drones.

Although this pairing is not typical, the technical capability to use missiles from one system with another was incorporated during the transition of air defense forces from the Kub SAM system to the Buk in the 1970s and 1980s. Thus, the 9A38 self-propelled firing unit was developed for the Kub-M4 SAM system.

Its launcher was designed with interchangeable rails (or adjustable mounts), allowing it to carry either three 9M38 missiles (Buk) or three 3M9M3 missiles (Kub). However, the video features a hybrid of a Kub SAM launcher and a Buk self-propelled firing unit.

Buk FrankenSAM System

Another solution to the missile shortage for Buk SAM systems is adapting its self-propelled firing units to use American RIM-7 missiles, creating a system known as FrankenSAM. The 156th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment also operates it.

According to the commander of one of the crews, some vehicles equipped with these missiles have 34 or more confirmed aerial targets destroyed. It is also reported that one launcher has carried out 131 RIM-7 missile launches.

“We operate a modified Buk SAM system, popularly known as ‘Frankenstein,’ equipped to fire RIM-7 surface-to-air missiles. It has already proven its effectiveness in one area. One vehicle has 34 confirmed kills. Other vehicles have more, while some have fewer.”

Last year, it was reported that Ukraine had received technical documentation for FrankenSAM systems and could now produce them independently.