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Meet the Gravehawk: The UK’s Answer to Ukraine’s Expensive SAM Problem

Wes O'Donnell
7 min readJan 26, 2025

Gravehawk, a UK-designed air defense system, has been rapidly developed to meet Ukrainian needs on the battlefield. The project has been jointly funded by the UK and Denmark.

A concept demonstrator of a Supacat MBDA Brimstone launcher module mounted on a Supacat HMT 6×6 platform that shows the possible layout of the Gravehawk system. Illustrative photo Supacat.com / “X.”

Long live the King. Pip pip, cheerio. Lots of good weapons coming out of jolly old England these days for Ukraine.

Buried in the details of the UK’s latest military aid package was a surprising revelation: a previously unknown air defense system called Gravehawk, catching defense analysts completely off guard.

How does the UK keep coming up with these awesome names for weapon systems? First the Starstreak, and now the Gravehawk… Much better than the dorky “Patriot.”

Is it just me, or do these sound like comic book superheroes?

When it comes to innovation in Ukraine, the UK seems to have turned its attention to repurposing air-to-air missiles for ground-based defense.

Enter the Gravehawk, a cutting-edge mobile air defense system that promises to help Ukraine’s defenses against Russia’s relentless aerial bombardments.

And yes, it’s about time someone on Downing Street figured out how to address the expensive problem of shooting down Iranian kamikaze drones with $4 million Patriot interceptors.

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Wes O'Donnell
Wes O'Donnell

Written by Wes O'Donnell

US Army & US Air Force Veteran | Global Security Writer | Intel Forecaster | Law Student | TEDx Speaker | Pro Democracy | Pro Human | Hates Authoritarians

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