The adaptations used by Ukrainians after the invasion of Russia reached an unexpected level with the use of American antiradiation missiles installed on Sovietera fighter planes.
Disclosure Ukrainian Air Force
The AGM88 HARM is one of the most advanced missiles in the world when it comes to combating antiaircraft threats such as rocket launchers that can cordon off an airspace from the ground.
The acronym HARM stands for High Speed AntiRadiation Missile because it exceeds 1.84 times the speed of sound and is designed to destroy radars guided by the radio waves they emit while they’re looking for a target… in the air.
This missile has been an “airspace cleaner” for the US for some time, mostly from platforms like the Boeing EA18 Growler, made from the F18 Super Hornet, modified with sensors and equipment that cause jamming on enemy radars, and eventually shoots he shoots them down with the AGM88.
Pilot “Juice” holds the HARM missile in his MiG29 disclosure
However, this missile was designed for use on American and NATO fighter jets such as the Eurofighter and Tornado, rather than Soviet fighter jets, which it would destroy.
But everything changed with the invasion of Ukraine, and the resilient Ukrainian Air Force not only continues to fly MiG29 fighter jets, but also adapts them to use HARM against Russian antiaircraft batteries, freeing up their airspace.
#Ukraine: Another wreck of the American AGM88 HARM was found in Ukraine.
This time, more markings can be seen, leading us to believe that Ukraine received by far the most modern variant of the missile AGM88B, unless the missile was obtained from an upgrade with some older parts. pic.twitter.com/7txbGXry6K— 🇺🇦 Weapon Tracker of Ukraine (@UAWeapons) August 25, 2022
The first evidence surfaced weeks ago when HARM wreckage was found on the ground, and now the Air Force itself has released videos of the fighter firing the missiles.
Another detail that draws attention in the video below is the use of civilian GPS, something Russia did in Syria and has now repeated in the invasion. The low availability of the Russian navigation system GLONASS installed on Sovietera aircraft would be the reason for the deployment of civilian navigators using the American GPS network, with the Garmin 66 and 660 seen in the cockpit of the MiG29 fighter :
One of the 🇺🇦 pilots took footage of the combat missions of the MiG29 fighter jets.
🇺🇦 pilot Ivan dedicates this video to Major Yevhen Lysenko, his fallen brother in arms who died heroically on March 9th in a dogfight against the 🇷🇺 invaders. pic.twitter.com/eUVYIAboDr
— Ukrainian Air Force (@KpsZSU) August 30, 2022