The United States under the Secretary of Defense for Colin Kahl’s policy confirmed on Monday (August 8) that Washington had supplied several “anti-radiation missiles” to Ukraine, which could be fired from several Ukrainian Air Force aircraft. The statement had put meat on Russian accusations that the anti-American missile, AGM-88 Harm, which was part of the NATO inventory, had been used in the conflict theater. What type of missile is this and what is the impact in the ongoing war in Ukraine?
What is AGM-88 danger missile?
The ‘danger’ acronym in the AGM-88 Harm Air-to-Surface missile is a high-speed anti-radiation missile. This is a tactical weapon fired from a fighter aircraft, and has the ability to detect and return to radiation emitted by Radar Radar Station that has the ability to detect surface-to-air.
This missile was originally developed by Texas Instruments based in Dallas, but is now produced by the American Main Defense Contractor Raytheon Corporation. The continued version of this weapon was produced by Dulles, Northrop Grumman based in Virginia.
AGM-88 length is 14 meters long, but only 10 inches in diameter. It weighs about 360 kg and carries an optimized fragmentation type warhead that is optimized for the radar target. It also has an antenna and Broadband Homing Homing seeker, and a Solid State digital processor. This missile has a range of more than 100 km.
How do we know that it is used against Russia?
Over the past few days, Russian social media users have shared open sources information about telegrams about the effect that the remnants of the AGM-88 danger have been found near the Russian surface-to-air missile site. The remnants of the remnants of missiles seem to show the original serial number, which was traced to AGM-88 Harm by Open Source Intelligence Analyst. The statement by the US has now confirmed this reduction.
This is a question that has been contemplated by military analysts. It seems that only Western military groups have fighter aircraft needed to use these missiles, and that the danger of AGM-88 cannot be installed and used on Russian aircraft owned by Ukraine in its fleet. Several NATO aircraft in Europe-including Tornado ECR, F-16cm Block 50, and F/A-18-EA-18G-can fire AGM-88 danger missiles.
A CNN report noted that the Russian-Ukraine War was the first where the weapon had been confirmed to have been used by a military besides the US. However, its use, given the limited number of aircraft in the Ukraine Air Force, is still questionable. The same CNN report also said given that Ukraine did not have aircraft that were known to be compatible with missiles, there was speculation that missiles might have been fired by NATO aircraft that were quietly supporting the Ukraine military in the role of battle.
Is it impossible for missiles to be used by Russian Ukraine aircraft?
Theoretically, it is possible to use the danger of AGM-88 in limited mode on Russian aircraft. However, this will require a lot of fast -moving research and development that may not be possible in Ukraine itself due to expanded conflict. Northrop Grumman has tested the land -based missile version, but did not reach the necessary parameters.