Ukraine to receive a batch of Brimstone missiles from the UK

As part of a new military aid package, the United Kingdom will provide Ukraine with a batch of Brimstone guided missiles.

The press service of the British government reported on this.

In total, it regards 90 missiles, but their exact modification is not disclosed. They only note that they are anti-tank missiles.

Brimstone missiles have been used by the Ukrainian Defense Forces since 2022, when the UK delivered the first batches of these missiles in the Brimstone 1 version.

Ukraine received newer Brimstone 2 missiles. In total, it regards hundreds of missiles of both types.

Since these missiles are usually used against ground targets from aircraft, and Ukraine does not have the appropriate carriers, Brimstone is used from mobile ground launchers, which have a special frame on which an aircraft launcher for three missiles is mounted.

Despite the ability of the new Brimstone modifications to hit targets at a distance of up to 60 km from aircraft, the actual range of the missile from the ground is reduced to 10-16 km. This is caused by the high energy consumption of the missile to gain altitude.

Militarnyi published videos of the use of these missiles against Russian troops and the assessment of these weapons by members of the Defense Forces.

“The peculiarity of the missile is that it automatically captures targets by reacting to a mass of metal within a radius of more than 2 km from the launch point. So armored vehicles and soldiers who suddenly get into the flight zone will be out of luck,” Leonid Maslov said in a commentary to the video.

Brimstone

Brimstone is a family of air-to-surface guided missiles developed by the MBDA international consortium.

The Brimstone missile is 1.8 m long and 180 mm in diameter. Its multifunctional tandem warhead weighs 6.3 kg and is capable of penetrating dynamic armor. At the same time, the weight of the missile is about 50 kg.

The guidance system uses a millimeter-range homing head and semi-active laser guidance. The range of Brimstone 2 missiles from the aircraft is 60 km.