MAN-PORTABLE AIR DEFENCE SYSTEMS

US & NATO Shipped Weapons Into Ukraine

    The United States and NATO are shipping weapons into Ukraine at breakneck speed, including highly sensitive items such as shoulder-fired missiles called man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS) that can take down aircraft.

        Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems are short-range, lightweight and portable surface-to-air missiles that can be fired by individuals or small groups to destroy aircraft or helicopters. They help shield troops from aerial attacks and are most effective in targeting low-flying aircrafts. MANPATs or Man-Portable Anti-Tank Systems work in a similar manner but are used to destroy or incapacitate military tanks.

       The Western arms deliveries, another of which is expected to arrive in the coming hours, have been vital to enabling Ukrainians to fight the invading Russian forces far more effectively and fiercely than US intelligence expected.  But moving those amounts of weaponry into the largest conflict in Europe since World War II carries with it risks that some could fall into the wrong hands – a possibility the West has considered.

       The first MANPADS were introduced by the United States and Soviet Union in the 1960s. Russian and U.S. MANPADS were also used during the Vietnam war. The U.S. supplied MANPADS to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s, which the latter used against the Soviet forces. Countries such as India, Pakistan, Germany, U.K., Turkey and Israel have also used MANPADS in their defence efforts. As of 2019, 20 countries had developed the wherewithal to manufacture MANPADS and together made 1 million such systems for defence and export purposes.  

       Over time, non-state actors such as rebel and terrorist groups have also illicitly acquired MANPADS, using them during civil wars and other high-intensity conflicts. MANPADs have been used in the Syrian war and in Libya. Non-state groups in African countries like Sudan, South Sudan, Angola, Somalia and Congo have also acquired and used MANPADs. Russia is by far the biggest exporter of MANPADs, having sold over 10,000 such systems between 2010 and 2018 to various countries including Iraq, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, and Libya.

       Thousands of MANPADS of different types have flooded into Ukraine and have been dispersed among troops across the country – and more are on the way. They have been brutally effective so far, but without the threat presented by more capable air defence systems, the opportunities to engage the enemy at lower altitudes will decline. In other words, the presence of one enables the other. Moscow had warned “about the consequences of the thoughtless transfer to Ukraine of weapons like man-portable air defence systems, anti-tank missile systems and so on.