Since the initial pledge to deliver the system to Ukraine in December 2022, news about Rheinmetall’s Skynex air defence system has been largely scarce.
Whilst it has been known since November 2025 that the publicly announced pledges have been fulfilled and that Ukraine is therefore operating a total of four of these state-of-the-art cannon-based air defence systems, no further details regarding operational statistics had been made public even more than two years after the first delivery – at least until today!
Ukraine’s Air Command West posted a story on Instagram about a soldier serving in the 223rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment – which, interestingly, also deploys IRIS-T SLM supplied by Germany – and in doing so, also disclosed a few operational details.
The fire unit of the soldier in question is said to have successfully destroyed approximately 37 aerial targets, consisting of two cruise missiles and around 35 Shahed drones.
What is interesting is that around a third of all aerial targets intercepted to date can be attributed to a single mission. It is reported that a single combat mission resulted in the interception of one cruise missile and eleven Shahed drones.
A clear indication that the target under protection, or possibly even the Skynex fire unit itself, came under heavy fire at least once and apparently the defence task was successfully accomplished.
No further details, such as when or where this mission took place, have been disclosed. Only an earlier statement by Rheinmetall’s CEO, Armin Papperger, suggests that this may have occurred in connection with the defence of power plants in western Ukraine.
Skynex at a glance
Skynex is a state-of-the-art air defence system developed by the German defence giant Rheinmetall, which has been specifically designed and is used for close-range protection.
Unlike many well-known air defence systems such as the IRIS-T SLM or the MIM-104 Patriot, Skynex, like the well-known Gepard, operates as a “cannon-based” system and fires programmable 35-mm AHEAD rounds rather than missiles.
A total of four Skynex fire units, each consisting mainly of the Oerlikon Skymaster battle management system, the Oerlikon X-TAR3D Tactical Acquisition Radar and four Oerlikon Revolver Gun Mk3 anti-aircraft guns, were funded by the German government and supplied to Ukraine at a cost of just under €100 million each.
What makes these deliveries to Ukraine special is that, in order to enhance the fire units’ mobility and thereby improve both their operational readiness and their chances of survival, each system was fully mounted on Rheinmetall 8×8 swap-body trucks before being delivered.
In addition, the SolarΣshield (Solar Sigma Shield) is used to mask the thermal signatures of the components.
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