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British-made Lightweight Multirole Missile, also known as Martlet, has been spotted with Ukrainian forces for the first time.
On April 10, Ukrainian sources shared a video showing a soldier of the 95th Air Assault Brigade launching a Martlet missile from a man-portable Starstreak launcher at an aerial target. The sources claimed the target, allegedly a Russian Oraln-10, was shot down. However, the video shows no hit.
Video of Ukrainian soldiers from the 95th Air Assault Brigade firing a British Starstreak MANPADS reportedly at a Russian Inokhodets UCAV.https://t.co/eV95DXlKxL pic.twitter.com/yM4oWjCHWC
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 10, 2022
The Martlet was designed by Thales Air Defence to be launched from a variety of naval, air and land platforms against a wide range of targets.
While different guidance options were developed for the Martlet , the initial batch of the missile is guided by laser beam-riding with infrared terminal homing and a laser proximity sensor. The modern missile has a maximum range of eight kilometers.
The Martlet entered service with the UK military in 2021. Only 1,000 missiles were reportedly placed on order. This suggests that the number of missiles supplied to Ukraine is in the hundreds at best.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed in March that his country is planning to supply Starstreak man-portable air-defense systems to Ukraine. However, he didn’t say anything about supplying Martlet missiles back then.
The UK has been leading Western efforts to support the Kiev government side by side with the US. Britain believes that Western military support will eventually lead to the failure of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, which began on February 24.
Very recently, the UK promised to supply Ukraine with 120 armored vehicles as well as anti-ship missiles. This would be a serious escalation. Russia has already warned that it will target British weapons delivered to Ukraine.
