Stormer HVMs are small armored vehicles equipped with Starstreak surface-to-air missile launchers. They began to be produced in the 1970s, and in 1986 guided anti-aircraft missiles were installed on them.
These missiles can be launched not only from a caterpillar installation, but also from a portable installation such as the Stinger. Unlike its American counterpart, Starstreak has a multiple warhead that hits the target with three fragmentation projectiles. In flight, the rocket develops a speed of up to Mach 3.5 and can hit a target at a distance of 6,000 meters.
Another difference from the Stinger is that the missile is guided by the laser beam, not by the thermal trace of the target. This renders heat traps and smoke screens useless, but requires keeping the beam on target while the missile is flying.
Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, believes that British anti-aircraft systems will not seriously change the balance of power in the special military operation in Ukraine.
“The British delivered the Starstreak in portable form, and now they will deliver the same in an armored personnel carrier. This is simply, obviously, the supply of air defense systems and compensation for losses. “This will not give Ukraine any advantage, and nothing will fundamentally change for Russia,” he said.
In turn, Alexander Ermakov, an expert at the Russian Council on International Relations (RIAC), noted that the appearance of the Stormer HVM by Ukrainians will not change the behavior of Russian pilots and the nature of attacks on Ukrainian military installations. To protect against missiles, as before, they will have to use heat traps and perform evasive maneuvers.
“These complexes will not radically change the behavior of Russian pilots. “They initially proceed from the fact that the enemy has a large number of MANPADS,” said Yermakov.
At the same time, in his opinion, unlike a manual complex with a similar missile, the armored car has more ammunition and better means of target detection, but the large size makes the armored personnel carrier a more obvious target for combat aircraft.
“This “small tank” is much more visible, as it is difficult to notice a person, unlike an infantryman with MANPADS, which is not so vulnerable to aviation. The main advantage of portable complexes is that they are not actually fought before launch. It is very difficult to destroy them before throwing – for this you need to track down a person, where he will hide in the bushes or among buildings. And the tracked platform turned out to be a more vulnerable target. This is already a more understandable object for aviation, which it can hit outside the range of MANPADS, ”said he.
He also believes that in current combat conditions, tracked systems are worse than portable systems as they require a trained crew and maintenance. “Such things are fine when they are part of a defense-in-depth, but they are not in this case,” Yermakov added.
Military expert, retired Air Defense Major General Vladimir Sedov agrees with this view.
“Such systems work well in sync with other air defense and missile defense systems. When there is a continuous cascade that closes the sky. Thus, threats at distant borders should reflect systems such as the S-300 owned by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, followed by systems such as the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, which Kiev also has. And only at the final stage such portable systems as Starstreak or the Russian “Verba” can work. Now the Armed Forces of Ukraine has lost most of the S-300s and Buk. They cannot control the sky, they cannot operate in remote stages. Under these conditions, British anti-aircraft guns will not help Ukraine. This is PR, not support,” Sedov said.
At the same time, according to Yermakov, if the supply begins, the British complexes will hit the battlefield no earlier than in a month.
“Such things are good for announcements in the news, but it is not a fact that this is done for practical reasons, since these complexes first have to be reactivated, then transported by sea, most likely to Poland, to train personnel there. This is too long”,
Ermakov ended.
Source: Gazeta
