Rheinmetall, the German arms manufacturer, will deliver a new Frankenstein air defense tank to Ukraine, The Telegraph reported on June 17.
Kyiv has been urging its partners to send additional air defense systems as Russia intensifies its strikes against Ukrainian population centers and infrastructure. Germany will deliver its third Patriot system to Kyiv in the coming weeks or months, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on June 11.
The Frankenstein air defense tank consists of an advanced German Skyranger anti-aircraft gun mounted on a Leopard 1 battle tank. The system can shoot down both drones and missiles, according to the outlet.
"There are still many Leopard 1 main battle tanks on whose chassis we could mount the Skyranger turret with the 35 mm caliber automatic cannon," Bjorn Bernhard, the head of land systems at Rheinmetall, said in an interview with the German tabloid Bild.
The recently developed Skyranger system has sophisticated sensors with a 360-degree view of the battlefield and is capable of dealing with drones, according to The Telegraph.
It remains unclear when Ukraine can expect to receive the vehicle.
Ukraine used a hybrid air defense system under the FrankenSAM program, a joint project between Washington and Kyiv, to shoot down Russian Shahed-type drones.
As of January, five projects have been developed under the FrankenSAM concept, with all the systems already deployed on the battlefield, Strategic Industries Minister Alexander Kamyshin said.
Chris York
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