Illustrative image. (KB Mashinostroyeniya)
Russia’s 9K333 Verba man-portable air defense missile system (MANPADS) has downed thousands of drones over the special military operation zone in Ukraine, a representative of the High Precision Systems holding company — part of the state tech corporation Rostec — told TASS at the World Defense Show 2026 in Saudi Arabia.
“The system targets drones, and it’s nice to hear that the Verba has downed thousands of them,” the Russian state-run news agency quoted the representative as saying.
The representative noted that the system is currently being used both along the line of contact against reconnaissance drones and to repel suicide drone attacks.
Last November, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that troops deployed at the direction of Kherson shot down ten Ukrainian drones using Verba missile in just one week.
The Verba, developed by KB Mashinostroyeniya, is equipped with a multispectral optical seeker, using three sensors: ultraviolet, near infrared, and mid-infrared.
Cross-checking sensors against one another improves discrimination between relevant targets and decoys, and decreases the chance of disruption from countermeasures, including lasers that attempt to blind missiles. This also improves the missile’s performance against newer threats with low infrared signature, like drones and cruise missiles.
The Verba is reported to have an operational range of 6.5 kilometers, with the ability to engage targets flying at an altitude of 4.5 kilometers with a speed up to 500 meters per second, that’s about Mach 1,5.
The MANPADS can be equipped with a special thermal imaging sight, the 1PN97M Mowgli-2M, which greatly improves the ability to detect and aim at targets at night and in poor weather conditions. It can be also used in conjunction with the 1L122 Harmonium man-portable radar, which has a detection range of up to 40 kilometers.
The missile can be integrated into ground- and sea-based short-range air-defense. There are also reports suggesting that it can be integrated into helicopters, similar to the Igla-V, the air-launched version of the Igla family of MANPADS. In addition, the missile is currently being tested on the interceptor version of the Geran-2 drone.
Prior to the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian military fielded the Verba during the special military operation in Syria. The MANPADS was also exported to Armenia, although it is still unclear if it was used during the second Nagorno-Karabakh war.
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