Ukrainian Air Defense Pairs A Kub Launcher With A Buk Fire Unit To Counter Jet-Powered Shaheds

Ukrainian air defense is using a pairing of a Kub system launcher with a self-propelled fire unit (SFU) of the Buk to shoot down Russian jet-powered Shaheds. This was reported by Militarnyi. The combat work of such a pairing was shown by the 156th Maksym Kryvonos Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment.

Using these systems together in a single air defense loop is possible thanks to their related architecture. It partly removes one of the Kub's main problems: the system has no autonomous illumination and guidance station. In turn, for the Buk it provides access to the missiles of the Kub system.

The Buk SFU has an integrated radar for target detection and tracking. It is able to detect air objects at a much greater distance and transmit their coordinates.

The pairing works as follows. The Buk SFU detects a target or receives target designation, locks onto it for automatic tracking and continuously illuminates it with a radar signal. It then gives a command to the 2P25 Kub launcher with 3M9 missiles. The missile flies toward the target on its own, and its homing head picks up the illumination signal from the Buk SFU reflected off the target.

According to the military, the pairing has performed quite well in destroying air targets: it has about 20 targets to its credit. Most of them are Russian jet-powered drones of the Shahed type.

This way of using the systems is not typical. However, the technical possibility of using the missiles of one system together with another was built in during the transition of air defense troops from the Kub to the Buk in the 1970s and 1980s. For this purpose, the 9A38 SFU for the Kub-M4 system was created. Its launcher was designed with interchangeable rails (or adapters for the mounts), which made it possible to install either three 9M38 (Buk) missiles or three 3M9M3 (Kub) missiles. However, the published video shows specifically a pairing of a Kub system launcher with a Buk system SFU.

Another way to cope with the shortage of missiles for the Buk is to modify the SFU to use American RIM-7 missiles. This modification is called FrankenSAM, and it is also used by the 156th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment.

The commander of one of the crews noted that some vehicles with such missiles have 34 or more destroyed air targets. It is also reported that one of the launchers fired 131 RIM-7 missiles. According to the commander, the effectiveness of the modification, which is colloquially called "Frankenstein," has already been confirmed on one of the sectors of the front: one vehicle has 34 destroyed targets, while others have both more and fewer.

In 2025, it became known that Ukraine had received technical documentation for FrankenSAM-type air defense systems and can now build such systems on its own.