Mobile air defense fire groups protect Ukraine during combined aerial attacks

The Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Serhiy Nayev, reported on the work of mobile air defense fire groups of the Northern Operational Zone on his official social media pages. Defense Express analyzed the information.

According to Nayev, mobile air defense groups shot down 8 out of all 17 drones detected in their area of responsibility, or 47%. And it turns out that the other 53% were shot down by anti-aircraft missile systems. In total, during the recent attack, Russia launched only 35 Shahed-136 attack drones in different directions, and all of them were shot down by Ukrainian air defense.

Photo: Defense Express

These figures can be compared with other reports by Nayev on the work of mobile air defense groups in the Northern Operational Area - for example, on the night of December 21, 67% (9 units) of all attack UAVs in the area of responsibility were shot down. Earlier, on December 16, mobile air defense groups destroyed 8 out of 14 downed UAVs (over 57%). And on November 25, when 55 Shahed drones were destroyed in a massive attack in the Northern Operational Zone, mobile air defense groups accounted for more than 50% of all drones destroyed, or 28 units

At the same time, the situation with cruise missiles that were shot down on January 2 in the Northern Operational Zone is as follows: a total of 48 missiles were shot down in the area of responsibility, of which 11 missiles were shot down by mobile air defense fire groups. Of course, the figure is lower than for drones, but this is logical, because a cruise missile is still a more difficult target, Defense Express notes.

Photo: Defense Express

Mobile air defense groups appeared as a forced solution given the shortage of anti-aircraft missile systems and missiles for them, as previously emphasized by the spokesman for the Air Force Command, Yuriy Ihnat. And especially in the context of the Russian Federation's use of Shahed-type 'kamikaze' drones in Ukraine more than a year ago.

Today, the relevance of mobile air defense groups is only growing, especially given that the Russian Federation can launch more than 500 attack drones at Ukraine in one month, depleting the country's air defense. However, their effectiveness depends not only on the level of training of the teams, but also on the number of the groups themselves, which depends primarily on their equipment - pick-up trucks, weapons, etc.

For example, as Nayev says, the mobile groups that shot down 4 missiles on December 29 and another 4 missiles on January 2, as well as hit 2 Shahed drones, were using weapons such as the Browning M2 heavy machine gun, ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft mount, Stinger man-portable air defense system, and Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft systems.