Ukraine turned an older US missile into a deadly air defense weapon

In October 2023, news outlets following the ongoing invasion of Ukraine reported that the country's engineers had taken an older American missile and turned it into a deadly air defense weapon. The new weapon was just one of many ways Ukraine planned to protect its skies.

American and Ukrainian weapons engineers converted the AIM-9 Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile into a deadly surface-to-air weapon, which was meant to be used as a modified air defense system to protect strategic and vital Ukrainian infrastructure over the winter. 

The American AIM-9 Sidewinder missile was first developed in the 1940s and deployed by the U.S. in the 1950s. Military Today wrote that the Sidewinder was unquestionably the most “famous and successful air-to-air missile.”

Sidewinders are still in full production today and are still in widespread service but some of the models produced and still in stock are not in operation. Several of these obsolete missiles were supplied to Ukraine and the Ukrainians took made good use of these obsolete missiles.  

“Those were out of operation,” a senior Ukrainian official explained to the Associated Press about a type of AIM-9 that had been supplied to the embattled country. “We fixed them. We found a way of launching them from the ground.”

The senior official explained that the re-engineered missiles were a “kind of self-made air defense” and said that they would help the country get through the winter. It was expected Russia would again target and try to attack Ukraine’s energy network over the winter months. 

Ukraine’s first winter of full-scale war against Russia saw Moscow bombard the country and its energy network in order to cut off electricity to citizens and was probably an attempt to get Kyiv to negotiate an end to the conflict. 

Ukraine experienced more than fifteen major attacks and dozens of smaller attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure in October 2022 according to The Wilson Center’s Andrian Prokip. But Ukraine didn’t break. 

“In October, Ukraine had to suspend electricity export. Consumers lived through cutoffs and the constant risk of a total blackout,” Prokip wrote. “All energy sectors suffered, but the power system incurred the biggest damages and losses.”

Russia’s focus eventually shifted when the spring campaign season arrived but officials in Kyiv feared that Moscow would be targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again when the winter months arrived, which was why Kyiv needed more air defense weaponry. 

The unnamed official who spoke with the Associated Press emphasized that Ukraine’s AIM-9 air defense missile systems weren't a long-term solution for the country's problems. But the missiles were a good solution for Kyiv at that time since Ukraine needed whatever it could get. 

The re-engineered AIM-9 missiles were just one example of how Ukraine was doing all that it could in order to work with the supplies and weapons that it and its allies had on hand. But what do we know about the missiles sent to Ukraine?

Ukrainska Pravda noted that the first AIM-9 Sidewinders were included in the summer U.S. aid package to Ukraine and that the missiles have infrared homing guidance. What the missiles will target was not reported. 

However, it isn’t just AIM-9s being re-engineered for use in Ukraine. “We have an agreed solution where we take something obsolete and make it something different,” the unnamed Ukrainian official who spoke with the Associated Press said. 

The Associated Press reported that U.S. and Ukrainian engineers also redeveloped a Soviet-era Buk air defense system so that it could launch RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missiles, something the United States has in large quantities and has also provided to Ukraine. 

The RIM-7 is a ship-borne surface-to-air-missile that has been in use in the U.S. Navy since 1967 according to The Drive. The Sea Sparrow can intercept aircraft or cruise missiles and can also be used to engage surface targets. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons by Ensign Kristin Dahlgren

Pentagon officials have taken to calling the two missile engineering projects FrakenSAMs and the Associated Press wrote that the weapons have become a “life saver" for Ukraine as it deals with funding gridlock in the U.S. Congress.