At the end of October – beginning of November 2022, the media repeatedly reported, referring, among others, to the head of the Swedish Ministry of Defense Paul Jonsson, that Stockholm could transfer to Kiev its RBS 70 MANPADS, which were put into service in 1977, and since 2003 they have received an improved modification of the Bolide missiles. On December 11, 2022, the Swedish Minister during a briefing in Odessa said that his country’s government had decided to provide Ukraine with the 9th package of military aid, which would be 50% more than the previous one.
Jonson then noted that it will amount to $287 million and will include, among other things, air defense systems (unspecified). Now the Ukrainian army boasted of the Swedish universal portable anti-aircraft missile system that was on its equipment. On March 8, 2023, the press service of the newly formed 88th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces posted on its blog a photograph in which a Ukrainian soldier poses near the aforementioned MANPADS.
The RBS 70 was developed by the Swedish company Bofors Defense (now Saab Bofors Dynamics). The anti-aircraft guided missiles of this complex aim at the target using a laser and are the predecessors of the similar British LMM Martlet, which is already in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In this they differ from the classic MANPADS: the Soviet Igla and the American Stinger, which have a thermal seeker.
Swedish SAM MANPADS are launched from a tripod and have 1.1 kg cumulative fragmentation warhead with 3,000 tungsten balls inside. They are able to hit a target at a distance of up to 9000 meters and at an altitude of up to 5000. It is still not known how much Sweden transferred RBS 70 to Ukraine.
Photos used: 88th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
