The Ukrainians Have Their Own Surface-To-Air Missile

Ukraine is running out of missiles for its mainstay S-300 surface-to-air missile batteries. Even if the United States follows through on a reported transfer of ex-Taiwanese launchers for old HAWK missiles, Ukraine doesn’t yet have enough Western-made SAMs fully to replace all of its S-300 batteries.

There’s a local solution, as it happens. But it might be impossible for the Ukrainians to scale up. The SD-300 is a uniquely Ukrainian air-defense system. One that could replace the Soviet-made S-300—but only if the industrial capacity for mass production actually existed.

The SD-300 is no secret. Ukrainian weapons firm Luch actively was marketing the SAM system before Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022.

At the time, the SD-300 wasn’t ready for mass-production. That may have changed. “We have the latest air-defense systems,” Yehor Chernev, a member of Ukraine’s NATO delegation, told Ukrainian media this week. The indigenous missiles “are undergoing testing quite successfully,” Chernev added.

To be clear, it’s not totally certain Chernev was referring to the SD-300—although it’s unclear what other medium-range SAM he might have meant. The SD-300 design captures the best of Kyiv’s air-defense resources.

The SD-300 system combines a command vehicle, a four-round truck launcher and a 300-millimeter-diameter missile that might borrow components from Ukraine’s Vilkha ground-to-ground rocket, which has a diameter of—you guessed it—300 millimeters.

An SD-300 battery should be compatible with a variety of search radars. For guidance in the final seconds, the missile has its own onboard active radar seeker—perhaps from Ukrainian defense-electronics firm Radionix.

According to Luch’s marketing brochure, the SD-300 missile should range “not less than 100” kilometers, or 62 miles. That’s about as far as an S-300 can shoot.

But range isn’t the problem. Ukraine went to war 17 months ago with around 50 S-300 batteries overseeing hundreds of launchers. Ukraine’s foreign allies have pledged around 20 batteries of Western-made SAMS: IRIS-Ts, Crotales, NASAMS, Patriots and others. Those rumored Taiwanese HAWK launchers could form a dozen batteries.

Kyiv needs another 18 or 20 batteries fully to replace the S-300s as the Ukrainian air force’s stock of Soviet-vintage missiles finally runs out, potentially in the coming months.

That’s a lot of hardware—probably more than Ukraine’s boutique missile firms can build without a lot of foreign assistance. It’s an open question whether the SD-300 is worth the effort when additional Western SAMs alone could meet Ukraine’s air-defense needs.