Ukraine develops device to see through Russian stealth aircraft

Ukrainian military sources said that manufacturer Antonov (a branch of the Ukrainian state-owned corporation Ukroboronprom) has publicly announced its ambition to develop AWACS aircraft for the Ukrainian Air Force and move towards exporting them.

The plans and designs have been sent by the manufacturer to the Minister of Defense and Chairman of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The new AWACS aircraft will be codenamed 148DRLV and will be produced on the basis of the An-148 aircraft.

To carry out the mission, 148DRLV will be equipped with two radar systems on the back of the aircraft. According to initial information, the 148DRLV's radar has a scanning range of up to more than 400 km and is capable of detecting fighter-sized targets flying at low altitudes even in environments with strong electronic interference from a distance of over 350 km.

The features of the 148DRLV are said to be on par with Russian aircraft of the same type, as it is also capable of simultaneously detecting and tracking multiple airborne and surface targets beyond the horizon, with a maximum scanning altitude of up to more than 25km.

In addition to the ability to monitor 360 degrees around the aircraft and the ability to distinguish friend or foe in combat conditions. The manufacturer believes that, once put into service, the 148DRLV will be able to detect any Russian fighter aircraft, no matter how modern.

Not only impressing with the plan to develop AWACS aircraft, Ukraine has also surprised the world with the launch of extremely powerful automatic weapons. Specifically, at the end of 2017, Ukrainian defense manufacturers for the first time displayed a series of new inventions that play an important role in the country's defense capabilities, especially automatic weapons.

"In addition to introducing new products, the presentation of a series of new achievements of Ukrainian defense will further strengthen cooperation between domestic and foreign defense enterprises," said a representative of UkrOboronProm Corporation.

According to Defence-Blog, the main products of the Ukrainian defense industry at this exhibition are the Phantom combat robot and the Horlytsia unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) - both products of the UkrOboronProm arms corporation.

According to the manufacturer's introduction, Phantom is an unmanned multi-purpose vehicle designed to gather intelligence, deliver weapons and evacuate wounded. Phantom is equipped with a 12.7mm machine gun, thermal imaging equipment and an electric motor with a generator that allows it to operate in an automatic state for about 1 month.

Meanwhile, Horlytsia is a UAV that can fly at a maximum altitude of 5 km and stay in the air for about 7 hours to serve the reconnaissance mission. The aircraft will serve the Ukrainian military after test flights are completed by the end of 2018.

Both the Horlytsia and Phantom will then be exported to foreign customers. However, to date, the country’s high-tech weapons have yet to find any international customers.