In mid-December, the French media were full of headlines about the transfer of new Mamba air defense systems to Ukraine. French Ambassador to Ukraine Etienne de Ponsin confirmed the next aid package and clarified that the French and Italians will jointly handle the transfer of systems.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov spoke publicly about the request for SAMP/T weapons in an interview with the French publication Le Monde in early December, and the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in October justified the need to transfer air defense systems, including SAMP/T, under time to address the leaders of the G7 countries Let’s take a closer look at the capabilities of this system and its role in strengthening Ukraine’s air defense.
Production of the Mamba air defense system
The SAMP/T short- and medium-range air defense system, also known as Mamba, is the result of the activities of a large group of European companies. The Eurosam consortium consists of MBDA Italy, MBDA France and the French company Thales, which also manufactures the Crotale air defense system, which we wrote about earlier.
Development of the system started back in 1989, and it entered service in 2011. The operators of the system are France, Italy and Singapore, for the Ukrainian side the Italians will deal with the transmission of radars, and the French – launchers.
At the same time, according to the media, France has the largest number of installations — 32 units, and Italy has only 6. Singapore has 12 systems in service. It will be recalled that earlier the Spanish government agreed to transfer medium-range guided missiles of the Italian production Aspide.
In May 2022, the SAMP/T air defense system was already in the news when the French government transferred the systems to Romania. Such actions were caused by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and coordinated as part of the program to strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defense position in Eastern Europe.
And in 2021, Turkey expressed a desire to purchase Italian SAMP/T, refusing the Russian S-400. This confirms the high competitiveness of the SAMP/T system, because it is used by both NATO members and can be more effective than analogues on the market.
Video using SAMP/T:
The design of the Mamba air defense system
The complex consists of 1 to 6 launchers (each containing 8 missiles), a Thales Arabel radar, a command and control vehicle, an automotive generator and 2 maintenance vehicles.
The French armed forces designate this system as a means of covering the battle formations of troops and infrastructure facilities, such as airports and seaports, from the entire possible spectrum of air targets. That is, the system is capable of destroying various air targets: from aircraft and drones to cruise and ballistic missiles with a firing range of up to 600 kilometers. At the same time, 14 people are engaged in the maintenance of the system, which is much less compared to the recent Patriot news star, which requires the involvement of 90 specialists.
Mamba is able to detect targets at a distance of up to 400 km and track up to 16 targets simultaneously (with simultaneous detection of up to 130). The system is built on the basis of a wheeled chassis. For the French version, it is the Renault Kerrax truck, and for the Italian Iveco Astra. It is a heavy tactical high mobility truck (HEMTT) with an 8×8 wheel formula, which has a wide range of military applications.
The SAMP/T system is capable of quickly eliminating a target, releasing 8 Aster 30 block 1 missiles in a 10-second salvo. Mamba will hit a drone or aircraft at a distance of 3 to 100 km and destroy ballistic missiles at a distance of 3 to 25 km. The height of the damage ranges from 50 m to 25 km.
The warhead of the missile weighing 15 kg is of the high-explosive type with a radius of 2 m. The explosion of the missile and the capture of the target itself occurs in the immediate vicinity thanks to the programmable delay of the non-contact detonator and the homing radar head. There is an updated version of the Aster 30N interceptor missile. It has increased the number of adjustment methods and improved targeting accuracy.
Technical characteristics of the Aster 30 block 1 missile:
| Characteristic | Value |
| Length | 4.9 m |
| Diameter | 180 mm |
| Starting weight | 450 kg |
| The mass of the combat unit | 15 kg |
| Engine | solid fuel two-stage |
| Speed | Mach 4.1 (1,400 m/s) |
| The range of hitting targets | 100-120 km |
| The height of defeat | 25 km |
Exploitation value
During exercises in 2013, NATO forces tested the effectiveness of the action system. The SAMP/T destroyed a ballistic missile that was fired from the aircraft after completing a 300 km ballistic flight. The system can be considered a powerful reinforcement of the air defense system, because it is highly automated, fast in action and provides dense fire on the enemy target.
In the conditions when Russia is conducting negotiations with Iran regarding the supply of ballistic missiles, Ukraine has already successfully agreed on effective protection against them. Mamba is capable of intercepting not only the Iranian Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar, but the Russians still have the Iskander.
Aster 30 block 1 missile launchers work in all angles, destroying targets in any direction. The missiles themselves are resistant to enemy electronic countermeasures, and the system is ready for emergency conditions and various obstacles. The complex is able to deliver a pre-emptive strike on targets thanks to its tactical and strategic mobility, while it does not take much time to deploy and withdraw from the strike.
Much less people are needed to manage the Mamba complex than for the same Patriot, and therefore, if the training time is the same, then a larger number of specialists will be trained in one period. This does not reduce the importance of other systems, but allows to obtain effective means of countermeasures faster in war conditions and reduce the number of victims of the population, as well as losses from the destruction of critical infrastructure.
The presence of sufficient units of this weapon from the Western partners allows us to count on a stable supply of the installations themselves, as well as the necessary amount of ammunition.
SAMP/T can be integrated with other air defense systems that Ukraine previously received from Western partners: Norwegian NASAMS, German IRIS-T, French Mistral and Crotale NG. And this means that even more modern and high-precision weapons will protect our skies and leave fewer ways for the enemy to influence.
