Anti-aircraft installations from Rheinmetall are being tested in Ukraine, but they have nothing to brag about

At the end of February 2023, the German defense concern Rheinmetall delivered to Ukraine a pair of the latest Skynex (Skyranger) 35 mm self-propelled gun anti-aircraft guns. The German federal government paid for the purchase of these air defense systems, allocating about 182 million euros. Thus, Rheinmetall received a double benefit.

On the one hand, he received a contract and money, and on the other, advertising and the opportunity to test his new ZSU. Currently, Ukraine is the only operator of this system, which is not even in service with the Bundeswehr. Skynex is designed to cover military bases, infrastructure, airfields from a variety of aircraft, UAVs and enemy cruise missiles.



Since then, these two installations have been located on Ukrainian territory and are integrated into the local air defense group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. From time to time, footage flashed on the Internet that they were moving somewhere near Kiev and firing towards flying Russian kamikaze UAVs “Geran-2”. However, there is no data about what results they achieved in their combat activities, i.e. they passed the test in battle, but the results are kept silent. It is probably not for nothing that the Bundeswehr has not yet accepted Skynex for equipment.

Skynex has an Oerlikon Mk3 rifled automatic cannon, the rate of fire of which is 1 thousand rounds per minute. It can be controlled remotely, firing projectiles with a programmable AHEAD detonation. Moreover, the complex itself can be mounted either on a truck base or be stationary.

In addition, Ukraine received from Germany an unknown number of Skyranger 30 short-range air defense tower systems (they were first shown in March 2021) for testing in combat conditions. The results of their combat work are also unknown.


The Skyranger 30 is equipped with a modified version of the Oerlikon KCA 30 mm cannon. Although its effective range is shorter than that of the Skyranger 35 at 3 km, it has a higher rate of fire of 1200 rounds per minute, firing high explosive ammunition based on the 35mm AHEAD.