Several 9K38 Igla SA-18 Grouse MANPADS man-portable missile systems stolen in Ukraine 0803143

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Defence & Security News - Ukraine
 
 
Saturday, March 8, 2014 02:58 PM
 
Several 9K38 Igla SA-18 Grouse MANPADS man-portable missile systems stolen in Ukraine.
Several, and maybe even several dozen 9K38 Igla man portable air defense missile systems MANPADS (NATO classification SA-18 Grouse) have been stolen to Ukrainian military bases, a Ukrainian military official, who wished to remain anonymous, said to RIA Novosti.
     
     

The lack MANPADS was particularly registered at the 80th separate airmobile regiment, where there were 54 sets of such systems and at the 27th separate mobile brigade, stationed 45 kilometres from Lviv city, where there were 90 MANPADS, according to the information.

The SA-18 Grouse or Igla or 9K38 is a Russian made man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile defence system (MANPADS).

The SA-18 missile has a maximum range of 5,000 m and a maximum altitude of 3,500 m.

The SA-18 is designed to engage low-flying approaching and receding fixed/roatry aircraft and to ensure pin-point anti-aircrat protection of installations and units on the battlefield.

A large number of such weaponry was reported stolen from a military base in Benghazi, Libya in 2012, following the coup, which saw Muammar Gaddafi overthrown and killed.

There later appeared reports that Libyan MANPADs could have been obtained by insurgents, fighting against Assad in Syria.

Man-portable SAM systems are now the most effective air defense assets intended to counter air raids because they are difficult to detect on the terrain by reconnaissance means, are employed surprisingly using the hit-and-run tactics, and feature high firing accuracy. In this context, it is very difficult for a pilot to react and evade the threat, especially as the aircraft has few counteracting weapons aboard while the available ones Eire not always effective. As a result of mass employment of manportable SAM systems, military aviation cannot gain superiority at altitudes of up to 3,500 m, from which ground targets are attacked with high precision.