The UK MoD has recently made available imagery of the RAVEN Air Defence System based on the Supacat HMT 600 and armed with AIM-132.
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According to the official captions: “The RAVEN Air Defence System [is] based on the HMT 600 Supacat vehicle and the Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM). This mobile ground-based air defence system is cantered around AIM-132 ASRAAM (Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile). The system takes the AIM-132, a hugely capable weapon, and adapts it for surface launch from the Supacat High Mobility Transporter (HMT) 600 (6×6) vehicle. The ad-hoc system is another example of the wide variety of advanced weapons that have been supplied to Kyiv by the United Kingdom. It will help meet a dire demand for short-range air defence (SHORADs) needed to tackle a resurgent Russian aerial threat on the frontlines.”
Background: In 2022 the UK Prime Minister’s Office (No.10) announced that it was considering gifting an undisclosed number of Supacat HMT vehicles as part of Britain’s military assistance to Ukraine. Roll forward to August 2023 and an image of a Supacat HMT 6×6 with improvised missile launcher, supposedly photographed in Ukraine, was widely reproduced online; we did not reproduce this as we were unable to establish the copyright holder to seek permission to publish, plus we were unable to verify authenticity.
As mentioned while discussing if WOLFRAM might have been sent to Ukraine, we mentioned that MBDA Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAM or AIM 132) were visible in this photo and the vehicle itself appeared to be one of the batch of approximately 32 MEP (Military Enhancement Programme) 6×6 HMT base vehicles procured from Supacat by UK MoD in 2005 for the subsequently cancelled SOOTHSAYER Electronic Warfare programme.
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* See:- WOLFRAM ~ Is MBDA and Supacat HMT 600 in Ukrainian Service?
