Ukraine turns to frankenSAM as West falls short on missile delivery
Ukraine is facing significant challenges with its air defence and missile defence due to inadequate equipment deliveries from the West and the depletion or usage of its stockpile of post-Soviet missiles. An attempt to fill the gap involves hybrids of post-Soviet systems with Western missiles, referred to as FrankenSAM.
Acquiring missiles for post-Soviet systems is very difficult since they were typically produced solely on Russian territory. On the other hand, the equipment deliveries that Ukraine has received so far came from the stockpiles of countries looking to dispose of their post-Soviet systems (mainly countries on NATO's eastern flank) or those willing to sell them.
The second category includes Jordan, which provided Ukraine with missiles for the 9K33 Osa or 9K35 Strela-10 systems. However, the list of such countries is quite small, and for example, Greece and Bulgaria, which possess a substantial stockpile of post-Soviet missiles, are not inclined to part with them easily.
For this reason, the idea emerged to adapt post-Soviet systems to handle Western missiles, which had already been explored in Poland and the Czech Republic in the 2020s. Information about the use of such hybrids in Ukraine has been surfacing for a few months, but only recently did a photo of the FrankenSAM system based on the Buk-M1 system paired with RIM-7 Sea Sparrow or RIM-162 ESSM missiles leak online.
Ukrainian FrankenSAM - possibly based on the work of Polish and Czech engineers
Modernisation programmes carried out in Poland in the 2000s, such as by the Military Armament Works No. 2 in Grudziądz (WZU-2), which developed and presented a launcher for the 2K12 Kub system integrated with RIM-7 Sea Sparrow / RIM-162 ESSM missiles during the 2007 MSPO trade fair, may have been very helpful to the Ukrainian effort.
On the Czech side, the company RETIA, in cooperation with MBDA, executed a similar project based on AIM-7E or Aspide 2000 missiles. These systems could engage targets at distances of approximately 30 to 50 kilometres, depending on the missiles used, and at altitudes up to about 14 kilometres.
It can be presumed that after the war in Ukraine broke out, the mentioned companies might have provided their documentation or even actively participated in the development of the Ukrainian FrankenSAM system.
The most significant challenge was likely adapting the Soviet radar, which operates on different frequencies than the radar in RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and RIM-162 ESSM missiles, and updating the air defence system software for missiles with different flight characteristics. Radar components from the USA or Europe were probably utilised.
It is worth noting that the mentioned missiles do not have their own radar transmitters and rely on the launcher’s radar to guide them to illuminated targets. This older and cheaper solution requires continuous target tracking by the radar until impact.
These systems are not top-tier, but they are sufficient for combating attack aircraft, helicopters, large drones, or cruise missiles. Additionally, the availability of RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missiles or other variants like AIM-7 Sparrow in NATO countries is a significant advantage.
