Avenger: the air defense system that will combat Russian drones in Ukraine

@DefAviation ES 2·19·2023 · 20:45 0

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has become one of the theater of war with the highest use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to date.

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Ukraine and Russia both use drones in their military operations. The Russians are receiving Iranian Shahed 136 kamikaze drones, a type of UAV that is also known as loitering munitions. Russia is also using these weapons against civilian buildings, in its strategy of trying to sow terror among the Ukrainian population. To combat that threat, in November the US announced the shipment of four AN/TWQ-1 Avenger air defense systems. On January 20, sending eight additional systems. A week ago, those systems were seen disembarking in the German port of Bremerhaven , along with other military vehicles sent by the US as aid to Ukraine, as seen in this video starting at the 0:21 point:

Interestingly, although the US announced 12 Avenger systems in total, in Bremerhaven 14 have disembarked, in addition to some 60 M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, some 160 MRAP armored vehicles and also M-88 recovery vehicles, among other models. In the last few hours, Avenger systems have been seen in Poland en route to Ukraine, loaded onto trucks:

The AN/TWQ-1 Avenger (also known as the M1097) is a short-range air defense system mounted on the back of a Humvee . It specializes in shooting down unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters, planes and cruise missiles that fly at low altitude, specifically at a height of less than 3,800 meters and at a distance of up to 5.5 km.

The Avenger's rotating turret is equipped with eight infrared-guided FIM-92 Stinger short-range surface-to-air missile launchers (i.e., they homing in on the heat given off by the target), located in four launcher mounts on each side of the turret.

In addition, the Avenger carries a .50 caliber (12.7mm) FN M-3P machine gun, located under the right mounting of the Stinger missile launchers and fed by an ammunition box of up to 250 shells. The Avenger DEW version replaces the M-3P with an M-242 Bushmaster 25mm cannon. On the left side, under the Stingers launcher, is a FLIR sight and laser rangefinder.

This air defense system was developed in the US in the 1980s. It entered service in the US Armed Forces in 1989 and more than 1,100 units have been built to date, serving in the Army and the US Marines and in the Armed Forces of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Lithuania and Taiwan. It was deployed in the Iraq War where it showed some limitations by not being able to fire its machine gun when the turret is pointed towards the front of the Humvee. Later versions corrected this problem to be able to shoot in 360º. The vehicle carries only two crew members, which together with its high mobility makes it a highly effective and quickly deployable tool on the battlefield.

You can see here the AN/TWQ-1 Avenger in action in some US Army maneuvers:

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Photos: U.S. Army.