Gravehawk

A British air-defence system built inside a shipping container that fires Ukraine's own Soviet-era R-73 air-to-air missiles from launch rails salvaged from Soviet-era fighters. It exists because Ukraine had missiles it could not launch and targets it could not reach.

Overview

Gravehawk is a containerised short-range air-defence (SHORAD) system designed by the United Kingdom specifically for Ukraine and funded jointly by the UK and Denmark. Its governing idea is munitions arbitrage: Ukraine holds substantial stocks of the Soviet-era R-73 (NATO: AA-11 Archer) infrared-homing air-to-air missile, but the aircraft that carry them — MiG-29s and Su-27s — are a scarce, attrited and heavily tasked resource. Gravehawk moves the missile to the ground, mounting it on launch rails taken from Soviet-era fighters such as the Su-27 inside a standard ISO shipping container that can be carried on a hook-loader or truck chassis.

The result is a mobile, concealable launcher that uses ammunition Ukraine already owns, requires no Western missile resupply chain, and can be positioned to protect cities and critical infrastructure against drones, cruise missiles, helicopters and aircraft. It belongs to the same improvisation lineage as the UK's Raven — repurposed air-to-air missiles on ground mounts — which defence reporting has collectively nicknamed "FrankenSAMs."

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