‘FrankenSAM’ Missile—A Tale of Necessity

Sidewinder missiles sent to Ukraine will be fired by a surface-to-air defense system that the United States was able to cobble together, known as a FrankenSAM.

U.S. marines load an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile into an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet as they take part in the bi-annual Marine Aviation Support Activity (MASA) 23 at the airport of a former U.S. naval base, in Subic Bay, Philippines, on July 13, 2023. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Commentary

Using the ever-popular Presidential Drawdown Authority, the Biden administration has authorized another $250 million in weapons transfers to Ukraine. This $250 million will leave the Pentagon with about $5.4 billion in authority to pull existing weapons from its weapon and equipment stockpiles to send to Ukraine without congressional authority.

The current tranche of weapons and equipment being transferred from the United States’ existing inventory to Ukraine includes such mundane items as 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds, Javelin missiles, 3 million rounds of small-arms ammunition, etc. However, included in the quarter-billion-dollar list of weapons is an undisclosed number of AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles. This is particularly interesting because the Sidewinder is the most widely used missile by the U.S. Armed Forces, and is employed on the Navy/Marine’s F/A-18A-D, F/A-18E/F, AV-8B, and AH-1 and the Air Force’s F-16, F-15, F-22, and A-10 aircraft. Additionally, the Sidewinder is used by over 30 international customers on over 12 different types of aircraft.

However, as widely used as the Sidewinder is by the world’s air forces, there are no reports of Ukraine’s Soviet/Russian aircraft being modified to use it. So why send it? Surprisingly, it turns out the missiles aren’t to be used by aircraft for air-to-air combat, but instead will be fired by a surface-to-air defense system that the United States was able to cobble together from radars and other parts contributed by allies and partners. The highly appropriate name for this system is “FrankenSAM,” with “Franken” being a reference to Frankenstein and SAM standing for surface-to-air missile.

This FrankenSAM system is particularly critical, as most of the anti-air defense systems that Ukraine had when the war began, or that were contributed to it since the war began, have either been destroyed or have run low on ammunition/missiles. The lack of anti-air capability has allowed Russia to increasingly take advantage of its overwhelming airpower. Presumably, these new systems will be counted on to provide some protection for Ukraine’s most critical military bases.

While the new systems will be much welcomed, they won’t make up for Ukraine’s critical shortage of long-range SAMs as the Sidewinder’s typical range is approximately 10 miles when used in air-to-air combat, and likely will have less than half that range when fired from the ground. While radar will be used to identify where the target is, and then fire the Sidewinder to a predicted intercept point, it will be the Sidewinder’s infrared heat seeker that will provide the terminal guidance. In other words, the FrankenSAM is really a hybrid that could be described as a radar-directed, infrared-based air defense system.

But, the FrankenSAM systems are not the only anti-air systems that have been cobbled together. U.S. engineers have collaborated with Ukraine to modify Soviet-era Buk-M1 air defense launchers to fire RIM-7 missiles, of which the United States has large quantities. The ability to fire the RIM-7 semi-active radar-guided missiles will extend the usefulness of Ukraine’s dwindling number of Buk air defense launchers as they’re running short on its native missiles. The RIM-7 missile’s range of just over 10 miles is significantly less than that of the Russian 9М38 class missiles it’s replacing, but should still be effective for short-range defense.

Taken together, the two new systems will help slow down Russia’s march to air superiority by making Russia think twice about executing missions that put their valuable planes and helicopters within range of these systems. But with Russia’s huge advantage in long-range strike power, it’s inevitable that each week and month will see fewer of these systems being available as they’re hunted down. Still, even if they don’t fully solve Ukraine’s air defense woes, they’re a testimony to necessity being the mother of invention, and the fact they were developed so quickly is noteworthy.

So, noted!

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.