Ukraine uses AGM-88 HARM missiles in war, driving invaders to hysteria

The Ukraine Armed Forces have inflicted a strike on the Russian air defence with AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles.

The announcement was posted by the Russian side on social networks, where the invaders published a photo of the wreckage of American shells, according to the Ukrainian socio-political news service Obozrevatel.

There was no official confirmation from the Ukrainian side, however, the head of the Ministry of Defense, Oleksiy Reznikov, has repeatedly said that Kyiv is waiting for the supply of shells of this type.

AGM-88 HARM is a high-velocity tactical air-to-ground anti-radar missile. In simple terms, it is designed to destroy enemy radars, which, among other things, are based on air defence systems.

HARM was developed in the 1980s, it is capable of targeting high-frequency radars - while the missile does not lose its target when the radar is turned off (like some other models), it can calculate radars’ location and destroy them.

The very high speed of the rocket contributes to the effective hitting of targets - the AGM-88 accelerates up to 2,280 km per hour in flight, which is 1.8 times higher than the speed of sound.

Characteristics of AGM-88 HARM:

– range: from 25 to 150 km

– rocket length: 4.17 m

– diameter: 0.25 m.

What's wrong?

The fact is that this missile is designed for American and some European aircraft - for example, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F/A-18 Hornet, and F-111 Aardvark. As is known, there are no such fighters in service with the Ukrainian army. There is also no information that the projectile was installed on Soviet-made aircraft. The vehicles in service with Ukraine simply do not have the necessary interface.

There is also no official information that the United States or another country transferred the AGM-88 HARM to Kyiv. However, Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov had repeatedly stated that he expected the delivery of anti-radar missiles.

“And you definitely saw the announced package, if I’m not mistaken, for $270 million with the signature of the US President [Joe Biden] that we will receive an additional four HIMARS, we will receive special anti-radar missiles that we didn’t have before. This will allow us to effectively destroy their radar system, essentially blind the enemy, which will give us the opportunity later to gain an advantage for the counteroffensive," the minister said in July.

How then were the Ukrainian forces able to launch the AGM-88 HARM?

There are several options here:

1. Ukraine could have secretly obtained Western planes, but this is more of a conspiracy issue.

2. Modification of Soviet fighters, which would provide an interface for HARM - for example, Soviet fighters in service with NATO countries can be equipped with similar technologies. Perhaps Kyiv received several of these aircraft.

3. Use of a ground launcher for American missiles. Even though HARM is not designed to be launched from the ground, there have already been similar cases. The Israeli army used the hull of an M4A1 Sherman tank to base the AGM-45 Shrike rocket launcher - it was called "Kilshon" and was in operation after the Yom Kippur War.

The experience of operating the British Brimstone missiles also speaks in favour of ground-based. These projectiles are also designed to be launched from the air, but the Ukrainian army uses them from the ground thanks to a makeshift launcher.