Ukraine Weapons Tracker has launched a video of a Flakpanzer Gepard Self Propelled Anti-aircraft Gun (SPAAG) capturing down a Russian cruise missile near Ukrainian infrastructure targets. Reviews declare that’s the first ever recorded capturing down of a cruise missile with the Gepard SPAAG, a weapon designed to offer close-in air protection in opposition to low-flying projeciles equivalent to UAVs, helicopters and brief vary missiles. The Gepard has been deployed by Ukraine in its protection in opposition to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The primary three Gepards arrived in Ukraine on twenty fifth July 2022. By 20 September 2022 thirty Gepards and 6,000 rounds had been delivered. Based on Ukraine’s Armed Forces about 50,000 Norwegian made rounds for the Gepard had been acquired by 26 September 2022.
Based on a Ukrainian protection attache in the USA the Gepard has been used to “nice impact” in opposition to the “comparatively crude” loitering munition believed to be Iranian-made Shahed-136. The Battle Intelligence Staff considers it probably {that a} Gepard destroyed a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile because it was concentrating on a Kyiv energy plant on 18 October 2022. One unit is credited with destroying greater than ten Shahed-136 drones and two cruise missiles. Such programs are simpler and therefore cheaper than extra superior and costly air defence programs such NASAMS or IRIS-T missiles, whereas being much less politically delicate as they solely have a restricted efficient vary. On 2 December, Germany recovered seven extra Gepard tanks from the “scrap pile” to be refurbished and despatched to Ukraine. Bringing the overall items despatched to Ukraine at 30. They may arrive in spring 2023.
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The Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard (“anti-aircraft-gun tank ‘Cheetah’”, higher often known as the Flakpanzer Gepard) is an all-weather-capable German self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG). The car is predicated on the hull of the Leopard 1 tank with a big absolutely rotating turret carrying the armament—a pair of 35 mm Oerlikon KDA autocannons. It was developed within the Sixties, fielded within the Nineteen Seventies, and has been upgraded a number of instances with the newest electronics. It has been a cornerstone of the air defence of the German Military (Bundeswehr) and plenty of different NATO international locations. In Germany, the Gepard was phased out in late 2010 and changed by the Wiesel 2 Ozelot Leichtes Flugabwehrsystem (LeFlaSys) with 4 FIM-92 Stinger or LFK NG missile launchers. A variant with the MANTIS gun system and LFK NG missiles, based mostly on the GTK Boxer, was additionally thought-about.
The electrically pushed turret is powered by a 40 kW generator pushed by a 4-cylinder, 3.8 litre Mercedes-Benz OM 314 multi-fuel engine that’s positioned within the entrance of the hull to the left of the driving force. The weapons are 90 calibres (3.15 m (10 ft 4 in)) lengthy, with a muzzle velocity of 1,440 m/s (4,700 ft/s) (FAPDS—Frangible Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot rounds), giving an efficient vary of 5.5 km (3.4 mi). The KDA autocannon has a twin belt feed for 2 totally different ammunition sorts; the standard loading per gun is 320 AA rounds fed from contained in the turret and 20 AP rounds fed from a small outlying storage. Every gun has a firing fee of 550 rounds/min. The 40 armour-piercing rounds are usually fired singly with the weapons alternating; they’re supposed for self defence in opposition to armoured floor targets. It’s normal to fireplace bursts in opposition to air targets, 24 rounds per gun for a complete of 48 in restricted mode and 48 rounds per gun for a complete of 96 in regular mode.
