File image.
An American-made Mobile Anti-Air Weapons Launcher—Reconfigurable (MAAWLR) system was destroyed by the Russian military, marking the first confirmed loss of this system in Ukraine.
The system was targeted by the 11th Army Corps, which managed to destroy it with a single fiber-optic-guided first-person view (FPV) suicide quadcopter. The strike took place somewhere in the Kharkiv direction. It is unclear when it was struck, but video footage surfaced online on June 24.
Notably, the drone hit the main component of the system, the Battery Revolving Adaptive Weapons Launcher—Reconfigurable (BRAWLR).
Sierra Nevada Corporation first introduced the BRAWLR last year, but the development began two years earlier at a request of the United States government for a foreign customer, which was apparently Ukraine.
The system features four weapons stations capable of launching interchangeable rail- or tube-fired munitions. Its arsenal includes two American-made options: laser-guided Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rockets with a six-kilometer range, and AIM-9M Sidewinder infrared-homing missiles reaching up to 12 kilometers. It can also deploy British-made AIM-132 Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAM) for targets up to 15 kilometers away.
When configured for “beast mode,” according to a fact sheet from the company, the launcher can wield up to 46 APKWS rockets at once.
It has been also reported that the BRAWLR could support the American-made AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), the Soviet-made R-27 medium-range air-to-air missile, the German-made IRIS-T short-range air-to-air missile.
The system targeted in Kharkiv was armed with two LAU-131/A launchers, each can be loaded with up to seven APKWS rockets.
The MAAWLR refers to the complete air defense system based on the flatbed truck-mounted air defense system. It is typically equipped with a WESCAM MX-15 electro-optical target system in addition to two RADA RPS-82 active electronically scanned array radars, and a radar illuminator. However, the Ukrainian system that got destroyed was only equipped with the MX-15.
It’s worth noting that the BRAWLR is also equipped with its own forward-looking infrared system which is likely used for optical tracking.
The system was mainly developed to counter low-flying slow aerial threats like drones, helicopters and cruise missiles. Missiles like the AMRAAM and the R-27 could, however, allow it to engage faster aerial threats flying on higher altitudes like fighter jets. Although this remains in theory as the system has not been yet supported with such missiles.
The system reportedly costs upwards of $6 million, which is many times the cost of an FPV loitering munition that typically costs only around $1,000.
Ukraine has been relying more and more on such improvised short-range air defense systems after the upper-tier of its air defense network was largely wiped out by the Russian military. Brining these system closer to the front to cover Kyiv forces is getting them exposed to FPV suicide quadcopters.
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give some of these to hezbollah.