The biggest shortage facing a Ukrainian shoulder-fired air defense unit isn’t necessarily missiles, the battery sergeant told Business Insider. It’s part of the equipment that helps crews find targets and keep their systems running.
The soldier, who uses the call sign Yankee, serves in a front-line unit equipped with portable air defense systemsor MANPADS, which fire shoulder-launched missiles that can attack low-flying aircraft, as well as cruise missiles and drones.
Weapons like these, including the American Stinger, the Polish Piorun and the Soviet-designed Igla, are been an important part of Ukrainian short-range air defense in frontline areas, protecting troops and operations from attack.
Yankee said that for him at least, one of the hardest things is “finding resources. Secondary resources, not the weapons, but the electronic warfare.”
He said some of the devices that help his team detect threats and keep the equipment working are “hard to come by.” What’s hardest to find is “mainly electronics.”
“I’m talking more about devices that locate the drones and alert you,” Yankee said. “I’m talking about things like EcoFlows, batteries, big batteries, because we have a shortage of them, just in general, just a massive shortage.”
Ukrainian soldiers use drone detectors to detect incoming Russian drones. Zoriana Stelmakh/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Ukrainian soldiers are increasingly using drone detectors, including small portable or vehicle-mounted models, to warn of certain situations incoming enemy drones Through detecting their radio frequencies.
EcoFlows are portable power stations that can power or charge essential equipment such as radios and communications equipment, Starlink terminals, laptops and tablets, drone equipment, electronic warfare systems and sensors.
These, and batteries in general, are especially important because soldiers are often far from electrical outlets, and Russian attacks are often stopped energy infrastructure. Running a portable generator would be much louder and could reveal their positions.
Electronic warfare systems are also critical to Ukraine as the country seeks to disrupt Russian communications and jam its drones.
Despite their importance, it is not always easy for units to obtain this equipment in sufficient quantities. Some of the equipment is much newer and less readily available than supplies such as ammunition. And while demand is high, some equipment is still not produced in large quantities. In some cases there are also distribution bottlenecks that affect availability.
Unlike many Western armies, the Ukrainian military does not have a highly centralized system for purchasing weapons. Units often purchase or receive equipment themselves, including through crowdfunding.
There are advantages to this arrangement rapid innovation because units engage manufacturers directly, but the system can also lead to uneven distribution, causing some units to experience shortages.
Ukrainian foundations, units and other groups involved in this sourcing and crowdfunding equipment as troops often request equipment such as batteries and detectors, and some describe these as items that air defenders need on a regular basis.
Ukrainian forces want electronic warfare systems to jam Russian communications and drones. credit should be Pavlo Bahmut/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
MANPADS and the units that operate them are important for Ukraine. Units, military personnel and officials have reported that missiles are downing Russian drones, helicopters and aircraft, and Western analysts have credited MANPADS with making penetrating Russian fixed-wing and low-altitude helicopter flights too expensive for Russia to continue.
A report last year from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S. think tank, said Ukraine’s integration of MANPADS operators into its air defense teams forced Russian pilots to choose between flying high and being targeted by ground air defenses or flying low and facing MANPAD missiles. This short-range defense relieved the pressure Ukraine’s ground-based systems, allowing them to “survive and ultimately recover.”
Yankee’s unit provides air defense for infantry needing to reach the zero line, the very edge of the front line, and as a result “we are participating in the battle,” he said.
He said conditions there could be so dangerous that moving just 300 meters could take 7 days of waiting for safe conditions and protection. Even traveling that short distance, he said, “can be a matter of life and death.”
Yankee spoke to Business Insider at Operation Legio, a Norwegian-led multinational program that trains and equips Ukrainian armed forces, including at a purpose-built camp in Poland. He said he was learning NATO standards and tactics, combining Western practices with his existing skills from combat before returning to Ukraine.
Yankee said he uses the Stinger and Igla systems. Ukrainian soldiers have at times reported shortages of MANPADS missiles since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, saying those shortages allowed Russian forces to be bolder because they knew the Ukrainians could not try to stop so many of their attacks.
But the Ukrainian military does not face a serious shortage of missiles, as is the case with larger surface-to-air missiles, and allies have announced new deliveries throughout the war.
However, not everything is consistent within the force. The Ukrainian military distributes weapons and ammunition based on operational needs, so that one unit can be well supplied for critical missions while another falls short.
