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Ukraine unveils its new Skif-M anti-tank guided missile system at MSPO 2022 in Poland.
During the defense exhibition MSPO 2022 in Poland, the Ukrainian defense industry unveiled its new Skif-M anti-tank guided missile system. The Skif-M is an improved version of the Skif, also called the Stugna-P in the Ukrainian army.
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Ukrainian defense industry unveils its new local-made Skif-M anti-tank guided missile system during MSPO 2022, defense exhibition in Poland. (Picture source Army Recognition)
The Skif also called Stugna-P for the Ukrainian market is a Ukrainian-made anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system developed in the 2010s by the Luch Design Bureau. The system consists of a tripod, missile container, a remote-controlled panel, guidance device, and sight system including a thermal imager.
At MSPO 2022, defense exhibition in Poland, the Ukrainian company Luch Design Bureau unveiled an improved version of the Skif, called Skif-M, M for modernized variant. The Skif-M is designed to destroy stationary and mobile armored targets, as well as Main Battle Tank (MBT), protected with passive or ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor) armor.
The Skif-M launcher station is lighter than the previous version and can fire 130mm and 152mm anti-tank guided missiles. The anti-tank weapon station is also fitted with a new remotely controlled panel which is used to aim and control the missile during all the firing operations. The Skif-M is equipped with a new local-made laser range finder.
The Skif-M is able to fire two types of missile including a 130mm caliber missile which can be equipped with a tandem hollow-charge warhead able to penetrate up to 800 mm of ERA armor or a high-explosive fragmentation warhead which has a penetration of 60mm. The second Skif missile has a caliber of 152mm and can be equipped with a tandem hollow-charge warhead that is able to penetrate 1,000 mm of ERA armor or a high-explosive fragmentation warhead able to penetrate up to 120mm of armor. The 130mm missile has a maximum firing range of 5,000 m while the 152mm missile can reach a target at a distance of up to 5,100 m.
The Skif-M missiles use a laser beam guidance system with target tracking in TV or thermal imaging channels in manual or automatic mode. The basic process is that the shooter operates the sight guidance instrument, and aims at the target in the field of view. The laser beam is transmitted to the target by the coaxial laser with the sight (the laser beam is the guidance information field through the space-coded modulation).
Close view of the new control panel of the Skif-M anti-tank guided missile system. (Picture source Army Recognition)