Mystery weapon revealed: Germany's stealthy aid to Ukraine
The German military aid list for Ukraine includes a mysterious weapon. The Kinetic Defence Vehicle, developed by Diehl Defence, is not listed among the equipment produced by this company. What has Ukraine received, and what are the capabilities of this weapon?
Germany provides detailed information about its military aid to Ukraine, regularly publishing an updated list of equipment delivered and planned for delivery.
Alongside Leopard 2 and Leopard 1 tanks and a significant number of various vehicles—from infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers to MRAP mine-resistant vehicles—the list also includes equipment named the Kinetic Defence Vehicle.
According to the Ukrainian service Militarny, this name conceals a new weapon developed by Diehl Defence. The existence of this equipment was first revealed in February 2024 at the Enforce TAC trade fair.
New hunter drone equipment
The Kinetic Defence Vehicle is a light vehicle based on the Enok MBB car (the military version of the Mercedes G-Class), equipped with an optoelectronic head developed by Diehl, an American-made Echodyne radar, and a Slinger combat module, a variant of the EOS R400 module, dozens of which have already been purchased by Ukraine.
EOS R400 is armed with a multi-barrel machine gun of 7.62x51 mm calibre (optionally, it can be equipped with a heavy machine gun of 12.7 mm, a 30 mm cannon, an anti-tank guided missile launcher, or a 40 mm grenade launcher). Thanks to such equipment, the Kinetic Defence Vehicle is a light, highly mobile drone hunter.
Although the Kinetic Defence Vehicle is equipped with radar, Ukrainian sources emphasise the capabilities of Diehl’s head—thanks to it, the fully passive equipment can detect and track a drone the size of the popular Phantom 4 model from a distance of about 1 kilometre, and can also combat it from that distance using a machine gun.
