Metinvest has developed a set of hinged anti-fragmentation protection for elements of the Ukrainian IRIS-T anti-aircraft system.

This was reported by the company’s press service.

As part of the Steel Front Initiative, the company has created a set of modular hinged armored elements for air defense systems. A team of project engineers worked on its development, supervising the work of turners, fitters, mechanical assemblers, and electric and gas welders.

The engineers have already mounted the first set on the command vehicle of the system. It covers the on-board projection of the control cabin from debris damage.

The kit includes nearly 200 armor plates, each 8 millimeters thick. They are crafted from 30KhN2MA steel, known for its enhanced wear resistance, strength, toughness, and resistance to mechanical stress.

The total weight of the set is 2.6 tons. However, the engineers assure that this will not affect the functionality or mobility of the vehicle, which is based on the chassis of the MAN SX45 8×8 army truck.

Such protection is primarily intended to protect the control vehicle personnel in the event of a close call with an anti-radar missile or other munitions that the enemy may use to suppress Ukrainian air defense systems.

The Russian military is actively searching for and destroying anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s deep rear, followed by a ballistic missile with a cluster warhead. In this case, mounted armor protection can save crews from critical injuries caused by submunition fragments.

It is worth noting that Metinvest engineers equipped with such armor protection one of the vehicles of the so-called Egyptian contract, which has a specific camouflage. These vehicles were urgently redirected by Germany to protect Ukraine from Russian missile attacks.

Metinvest previously launched the production of anti-drone protection kits for Ukrainian main battle tanks T-64 and T-72, as well as Western Bradley fighting vehicles and M1 Abrams tanks.

The company also plans to develop the production of similar protective structures for Leopard 2 tanks.

Metinvest’s engineers had also previously set up mass production of KMT-7 tracked mine trawls to equip Soviet tanks.