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UK Sends Raven and Gravehawk Air Defenses to Ukraine to Counter Russian Drones and Missiles.
The UK government says it has delivered 13 Raven short-range air defense systems and two prototype Gravehawk launchers to Ukraine, with more Gravehawk units arriving soon. The deployments highlight how low-cost, mobile interceptors are becoming central to Ukraine’s defense against Russian drones and deep-strike attacks, a lesson closely watched by the United States and NATO allies.
According to disclosures published by UK Parliament on 6 January 2026, the Ministry of Defence has now supplied Ukraine with 13 Raven air-defense systems and two prototype Gravehawk launchers, with the first units from an additional 15-system Gravehawk contract expected shortly. British officials describe Raven as a frontline shield for maneuvering troops, while Gravehawk is designed to protect critical infrastructure from Russia’s sustained drone and missile campaign.
UK-supplied Raven and Gravehawk air-defense systems deployed in Ukraine combine high-mobility launch platforms with infrared-guided air-to-air missiles adapted for ground use, enabling rapid engagement of drones, helicopters, and low-flying aircraft while strengthening short-range and point air defense against Russian aerial threats (Picture source: UK MoD).
Raven is a mobile SHORAD solution built around the AIM-132 ASRAAM, a high-agility imaging infrared missile normally carried by fast jets. On the Ukrainian configuration, two ASRAAM rounds are mounted on aircraft-derived launch rails fitted to a Supacat HMT 600 6x6 truck, paired with a mast-mounted electro-optical sensor package offering all-round search and track, and a simple operator interface designed for fast engagements under pressure. In its ground-launched role, Raven is typically described with an engagement reach up to about 15 km, trading the longer kinematic range of an air launch for a compact system that can reposition quickly and fight on short notice.
Raven’s value is less about building another strategic air-defense belt and more about patching the holes that appear at brigade and battalion levels when Russian drones, helicopters, and low-flying aircraft probe for artillery targets and logistics nodes. An electro-optical, infrared-guided kill chain also matters in Ukraine’s dense electronic warfare environment: Raven can hunt without emitting a radar signature that invites anti-radiation missiles or loitering munitions. IR-based engagements depend on weather, background clutter, and the target’s heat profile, and they can be stressed by saturation attacks that force crews into repeated reload cycles. Open reporting has nevertheless credited Raven with hundreds of combat engagements and success rates above 70%, suggesting Ukraine has found practical tactics for shoot-and-scoot survivability and disciplined target selection.
If Raven is the frontline quick draw, Gravehawk is the UK’s attempt to industrialize a Ukrainian wartime habit: turning available air-to-air missiles into surface-launched interceptors. In UK-released imagery and broadcast reporting, Gravehawk is built into a standard ISO shipping container with a roll-back roof that exposes a twin-rail launcher, using rails adapted from Soviet-era fighters so it can fire Ukraine’s existing stocks of Vympel R-73 air-to-air missiles. The system relies on a passive infrared camera and a compact remote command module for acquisition and lock-on, reducing electromagnetic signature at the cost of radar-style wide-area cueing. The R-73’s performance in this context is typically described as Mach 2.5 with an air-to-air range of around 20 miles, though real engagement envelopes against drones or cruise missiles are shaped by launch geometry, seeker limits, and line-of-sight.
Gravehawk’s most important feature may be economic and logistical rather than purely kinematic. By consuming missiles, Ukraine already knows how to store, handle, and maintain; it preserves scarce Western interceptors for the hardest targets and raises the number of firing units Ukraine can disperse around power generation, air bases, and command nodes. That logic fits the broader UK air-defence package announced in December 2025, which tied Raven and Gravehawk deliveries to a winter defensive push and the sustained flow of UK-built missiles, alongside plans to supply remotely guided counter-drone turrets acquired from Estonia in 2026. In a war increasingly defined by massed drones and layered strike packages, Ukraine’s success often hinges on density and responsiveness as much as headline ranges.
Neither Raven nor Gravehawk is presented as a standard British Army in-service system; they are bespoke, wartime builds aimed at speed of fielding. The missiles behind them, however, are well known. ASRAAM is in service with the UK and several partner nations, and has already been used in real combat, including an RAF Typhoon shootdown of a hostile drone over Syria in 2021. The R-73, in service since the 1980s and widely exported across MiG and Sukhoi fleets, has likewise seen extensive operational use and has been repeatedly adapted by Ukraine in improvised roles. Together, Raven and Gravehawk reflect a pragmatic UK-Ukrainian approach to air defense: prioritizing speed, adaptability, and battlefield relevance over peacetime perfection.