Taras Chmut, director of the Come Back Alive Foundation, said that Ukraine needs C-RAM weapon systems that can destroy cruise missiles and suicide drones.
“These systems today could cover Kyiv and the city center quite coolly… There are plenty of them in the United States. And this is an absolutely tactical missile defense system, which does not affect the conduct of the war somewhere in the Russian Federation and the threats that the Americans have in relation to supporting us,” Chmut said.
Militarnyi quoted Chmut saying that the U.S. Army has large stocks of these systems left after the withdrawal of contingents from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Counter rocket, artillery, and mortar, abbreviated C-RAM, is a set of systems used to detect and/or destroy incoming rockets, artillery, mortar rounds, and drones in the air before they hit their ground targets, or simply provide early warning.
The C-RAM capability is comprised of advanced targeting and networking systems coupled with a modified U.S. Navy Land-based Phalanx Weapon System (LPWS).
The C-RAM uses the 20mm ammunition, originally developed for the M163 Vulcan air defense system. These rounds explode on impact with the target, or on tracer burnout, thereby greatly reducing the risk of collateral damage from rounds that fail to hit their target.