Hensoldt And Ukraine's Defense Ministry Sign Memorandum On Supply And Joint Operation Of TRML-4D Radars

German company Hensoldt has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Ukraine's Ministry of Defense. The document is meant to serve as the basis for further large-scale deliveries of TRML-4D radar systems and for the development of radar capabilities of Ukrainian air defense.

The company said that under the memorandum the parties will consider options for deploying and jointly operating TRML-4D radars. The document is intended to expand cooperation under existing agreements on developing countermeasures against ballistic missiles and improving missile defense.

Hensoldt is a partner of the Ukrainian company Fire Point in the FREYJA anti-ballistic system project. The TRML-4D is named as the surveillance and detection radar in the future Ukrainian-European missile defense system. This means that development is ongoing and components for detecting ballistic targets are still being studied. The air defense missile system consists of more elements than just the FP-7.xx surface-to-air missile from the Ukrainian company Fire Point.

The review of deployment options will likely focus on assessing the radar's effectiveness in detecting ballistic missiles, transmitting the relevant data and so on. Hensoldt has a subsidiary in Ukraine, so the company may be able to work more closely with operators.

Even without an anti-ballistic system, additional radars are useful for strengthening air defense. TRML-4D is currently used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine both on its own and as the standard radar of the Iris-T SLM medium-range surface-to-air missile system.

The TRML-4D has an instrumented target detection range of 250 km at altitudes of up to 40 km. According to Hensoldt, in practice a fighter aircraft will be detected at a distance of 120 km and a supersonic missile at 60 km.