Ukrainian Armed Forces boasted Swedish RBS 70 MANPADS

In late October - early November 2022, the media repeatedly reported, referring, among other things, to the head of the Swedish Ministry of Defense Paul Jonsson, that Stockholm could transfer to Kiev its RBS 70 MANPADS, which were put into service in 1977, and since 2003 they received an improved modification of the Bolide missiles . On December 11, 2022, the Swedish minister at a briefing in Odessa said that the government of his country had decided to provide Ukraine with the 9th military aid package, which would be 50% more than the previous one.

Jonson then noted that it would amount to $287 million and would include, among other things, air defense systems (without specification). Now the Ukrainian military boasted of the Swedish universal portable anti-aircraft missile system that appeared on their equipment. On March 8, 2023, the press service of the newly formed 88th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published on its blog a photograph in which a Ukrainian soldier poses near the aforementioned MANPADS.

The RBS 70 was developed by the Swedish company Bofors Defense (now Saab Bofors Dynamics). Anti-aircraft guided missiles of this complex are aimed at the target using a laser and are the predecessors of the similar British LMM Martlet, already in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In this they differ from the classic MANPADS: the Soviet Igla and the American Stinger, which have a thermal seeker.

SAM Swedish MANPADS are launched from a tripod and have 1,1 kg of fragmentation-cumulative warhead with 3 thousand tungsten balls inside. They are capable of hitting a target at a distance of up to 9 meters and at an altitude of up to 5 meters. It is not yet known exactly how much Sweden transferred RBS 70 to Ukraine.