Ukraine to Receive British RapidRanger Air Defense Systems

Ukraine will be equipped with British-made RapidRanger short-range air defense systems, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced during a government meeting on Wednesday, June 11.

According to Shmyhal, Ukraine will secure nearly £1.7 billion in financial support from the United Kingdom to purchase additional air defense systems and missiles for them.

This includes the acquisition of RapidRanger air defense missile systems and Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM), 5,000 of which were pledged earlier this year.

The project is financed through a loan backed by UK Export Finance (UKEF), the British government’s export credit agency.

In addition to supplying weapons, the intergovernmental agreement also envisions localization of production and technology transfer for the LMM missiles.

Shmyhal emphasized that the British systems would significantly bolster Ukraine’s air defense capabilities.

He also noted that earlier this month, the UK announced record drone support for Ukraine worth £350 million. The funding will be used to deliver 100,000 drones to Ukraine this year.

RapidRanger

The RapidRanger is, in fact, an autonomous launcher weighing under 500 kg, capable of integration with any platform that can support its payload.

It is equipped with both daylight and thermal imaging cameras for low-light and nighttime operations, an automatic target tracking system, and a 360-degree surveillance sensor.

The system can be integrated into any command and control (C2) infrastructure. It has a target detection range of over 15 km and an effective engagement range exceeding 7 km.

RapidRanger carries four ready-to-fire missiles, which can be a mix of Starstreak 2 and LMMs, depending on mission requirements. All missiles are laser-guided.