The Army Avenger’s turret rotates as the vehicle drives down an Eglin Air Force Base range road April 20. (U.S. Air Force photo/Samuel King Jr.)
AN/TWQ-1 Avenger air defense systems donated by the United States to Ukraine have already arrived in Poland, according to videos that surfaced online on February 19.
The U.S. first promised to arm Kiev forces with Avenger systems last year. In November, four systems were included as part of a $400 million military aid package. Eight were included in a $2.5 billion package in January of this year.
Last week, at least 14 Avenger systems were delivered by the vehicle-carrier ARC Integrity to the German port of Bremerhaven on the North Sea coast along with dozens of armored vehicles and other equipment.
The Avenger was developed by Boeing to provide mobile, short-range air defense protection against cruise missiles, drones as well as low-flying aircraft. The system’s main armament is the FIM-92 Stinger infrared homing missile, which has a range of up to five kilometers. Up to eight systems can be loaded. The system is also armed with a secondary .50 FN M3P machine gun with around 600 rounds.
The optical targeting system of the Avenger is built around a FLIR [Forward Looking Infrared Receiver] and a laser rangefinder.
Kiev forces will reportedly use the new Avenger systems to protect their high-value installations from Russian missile and drone attacks. Due to their limited range, the systems will not likely be effective enough to achieve this task.
The U.S. has been working to improve Ukrainian air defenses for a few months now. The Avenger is not the only air defense system being supplied to Ukraine. The longer-range NASAMS system, and the MIM-104 Patriot anti-missile system were also included in recent aid packages.
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