cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/42162913
The first Skyranger 35 self-propelled air defense system mounted on a Leopard 1 tank chassis is set to arrive in Ukraine next week, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger announced during the Rheinmetall CMD 2025 event, according to monitoring project German Aid to Ukraine on November 18.
The system is being manufactured and integrated by Rheinmetall Italia SpA in Italy.
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Back in September, Rheinmetall confirmed it would supply Ukraine with Skyranger systems under a contract worth several hundred million euros. The deal is funded by an unnamed European Union country using windfall profits from frozen Russian assets.
The exact number and variant of Skyranger systems destined for Ukraine have not been publicly disclosed.
Each Skyranger 35 system can secure a 4-by-4-kilometer area, creating what the manufacturer describes as a fully “drone-free” zone.
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I highly doubt it would be- but wouldn’t it be wild if the ‘unnamed EU country’ was actually Hungary…
I think it’s Belgium. They are holding 160bln frozen assets are are scared of Russian repercussions if they were to use those. And Russia has been threatening with drones over Belgium many times now. So I’m guessing they want to be anonimous, although they aren’t doing a great job.They have been discussing lending the money to Ukraine, but were not all happy to do so due to the Russian threats.
Also, Hungary is very pro Russia, anti EU and anti Ukraine