Rheinmetall subsidiary company Rheinmetall Italia S.p.A. will deliver the second German-financed Skynex air defence system to Ukraine in March this year. This was announced by the CEO of the Italian subsidiary, Alessandro Ercolani, to Defense News.
Unfortunately, this means that the delivery of the second system will be delayed by around three months, as both systems were actually scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2023.
According to his statement, the first system financed by Germany was delivered on the 31st of December last year, while the German government made the delivery public on the 4th of January.
Both air defence systems together, including the trucks on which the components of the systems are to be mounted, have an order value of around 194 million euros.
Skynex is a full-blown state-of-the-art cannon-based air defence system, which was designed for close-range air defence operations, where guided missiles are less effective in terms of intercept rate and cost-benefit calculation.
Image: RheinmetallSkynex, which some mistakenly refer to as the successor to the Gepard SPAAG, consists in the baseline configuration of the Command and Control unit, the Oerlikon X-TAR3D Tactical Acquisition Radar, the Oerlikon Multi Sensor Unit and up to four Oerlikon Revolver Guns Mk3.
Even though we have not yet seen any photos or videos of the air defence system in Ukraine — which will only be a matter of time — the interview with the CEO has at least provided us with some early information about feedback from Ukraine.
According to Alessandro Ercolani, Rheinmetall was informed that the first system supplied is working well in Ukraine, which means, it has already been used in combat, most likely to counter Russian drone attacks.
Where exactly the first and soon the second system will be deployed is not yet known. However, the possibilities are almost endless. The only thing which is very certain is that it will not be deployed near the front line. The Gepard SPAAGs supplied by Germany would make much more sense there due to their more robust armour.
This means that Skynex is used either to protect a large city such as Kyiv, critical infrastructure such as power stations or factories for the production of armaments, for example.
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