Ukraine bolstered by arrival of dozens of U.S. anti-aircraft guns

According to a statement posted by the Ukrainian Air Force on social media, Ukraine has finally received the substantial shipment of powerful self-propelled anti-aircraft guns that the United States purchased for Kyiv nearly a year ago.

Anti-aircraft guns have emerged as one of the key systems of the war that Ukraine has lacked since Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion of the country in February 2022, which was why Washington bought five dozen older systems for the Ukrainians in November 2023. 

The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf was the first media organization to report the U.S. The Department of Defense had acquired sixty German Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns from Jordan for €110 million or roughly $120 million at the time. 

The history of these particular Gepard anti-aircraft guns is quite interesting and saw the guns sold by the Netherlands to Jordan in 2013 for €21 million. However, the invasion of Ukraine eventually saw these same systems purchased for Kyiv. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Hans-Hermann Bühling, CC BY-SA 2.0

These particular Gepards couldn’t be sent to Ukraine immediately because they needed to be upgraded and refitted. The Ukrainian military news website Militaryni reported that the Gepards were first supplied to the Netherlands in 1977 and 1979. 

In May 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense reported that the American company Global Military Products had secured a contract from the U.S. government for more than $118 million to purchase and supply Gepards to the Ukrainians. 

European Pravda later reported that both procurement of the Gepards and the work that needed to be done on them would take place in Amman, Jordan, and the estimated date of completion was set for May 30th, 2024. 

Global Military Products appears to have met its estimated date of completion since The Ukrainian Air Force posted images of the newly supplied Gepards on its Facebook page on June 5th with a message about the usefulness of the new weapons against drones.

“We strive to achieve the highest efficiency in repelling air and missile strikes and destroying the maximum number of targets,” the Ukrainian Air Forces statement read according to a transition from Militaryni.  

Photo Credit: Facebook @PvkZahid

“That is why we continuously train crews, collect, summarize, and share best practices, and conduct training with the use of control targets,” the Ukrainian Air Force continued.  

Photo Credit: Facebook @PvkZahid

Militaryni reported the new Gepards received a different radar as well as a smoke screen system. However, few other details about the upgrades these anti-aircraft guns were provided with were revealed. 

Photo Credit: Facebook @PvkZahid

David Axe of Forbes previously wrote that the Gepard was arguably “the best self-propelled anti-aircraft gun in the world” in a September 2023 report and noted one commander of a Gepard said that the system could even lock onto birds. 

Photo Credit: Facebook @PvkZahid

One aspect that makes the Gepard such a powerful anti-aircraft gun is its armament. "The German-made Flakpanzer Gepard is a pair of radar-guided 35-millimeter autocannons in a two-person turret mated with a Leopard 1 tank chassis, which seats a drive," Axed noted.

Photo Credit: Facebook @PvkZahid

Former Dutch Brigadier General Han Bouwmeester told De Telegraaf in its reporting on the sale of systems in November 2023 that the Gepard has proven extremely effective at dealing with drones on the battlefield, a weapon Russia employs in its aerial attacks. 

Photo Credit: Facebook @PvkZahid

One of the reasons why the Gepard is so effective against drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles is because of its high rate of fire provided by its autocannon system, something that The Kyiv Post remarked on in its reporting about the Gepards, noting the guns are a very cost-effective weapon. 

“Its two guns can shoot 550 rounds a minute and is a much more cost-effective counter-drone weapon than firing expensive missiles from air-defense systems like the IRIS-T or the Patriot,” The Kyiv Independent’s Nate Ostiller explained. 

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