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Media: Germany's Rheinmetall to deliver Luna drone system to Ukraine

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Media: Germany's Rheinmetall to deliver Luna drone system to Ukraine
Soldiers of the German Armed Forces check a Luna drone at the German Armed Forces Camp Castor. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa (Photo by Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Rheinmetall, Germany's automotive and arms manufacturer, will deliver a Luna New Generation drone system to Ukraine by the end of 2023, Bild am Sonntag reported on Aug. 12, citing company sources.

The package will consist of a ground control station with several drones, a launch catapult and military trucks, according to Bild. The drone system could be used as a reconnaissance system, provide an LTE network and intercept or jam communications.

Drones are integrated into every phase of fighting on both sides - Russian and Ukrainian, with extensive fleets, air defenses and jamming systems.

A report from the U.K.-based Conflict Armament Research published in early August, indicated that Russia has started making copies of attack drones obtained from Iran in the previous year and has been using them against Ukraine. Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones have been one of Russia’s most effective weapons.

Rheinmetall was identified as the previously unknown buyer who recently purchased 50 Leopard 1 tanks for Ukraine from the Belgian company OIP Land Systems, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Aug. 8.

The company purchased the tanks which will be refitted in Germany as part of its future exports of armored vehicles to Kyiv.

Russia says it intercepted drone over border Belgorod Oblast
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on their Telegram channel that it had intercepted a drone attack overnight on Aug. 13.
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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