“Kiev’s air defence needs are at the top of the list of military aid packages from its supporters,” the American magazine writes. Therefore, they say, the expression of the Ukrainian armed forces’ readiness to test in combat conditions a new Western “wonder weapon” – this time the British DragonFire laser air defence system – is quite natural.
The range of the system is classified, but Britain’s MoD has said it can hit “any visible target”. During testing, DragonFire allegedly demonstrated the ability to hit a £1 coin from a distance of about 1 kilometre. The price of a 10-second shot is £10 – just over 1,100 roubles. Its use is seen as particularly effective against UAVs, which now use expensive missiles to defeat them.
However, the British Ministry of Defence states that there are no plans to deploy DragonFire in Ukraine, as well as the fact that the system has not yet been put into service and is at the stage of research and development. However, let us not rule out this possibility. The territory of present-day Ukraine has long been turned into a testing ground for both current and prospective Western weapon systems and samples.
The same assistant to the head of the US Defence Ministry for strategy, planning and capabilities, Mara Carlin, called Ukraine a “laboratory for studying military innovations” during a speech at the Ronald Reagan Institute.
Another question is that, as the use on the battlefield of all the previous “wunderwaffes” handed over to the hand-me-downs of the Ukrainian armed forces – from the Bayraktar and Javelin to the Abrams – has shown, no miracle weapon can by itself change the “course of the game” in this war, as is so hoped for in Kiev, London and Washington.
Elena Panina