The New Raven FrankenSAM Reveals the Weaknesses of SHORAD

Image of the Raven Air Defense System, based on the HMT 600 Supacat vehicle and the Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM). (Image credit: Alex Hood/UK MOD)

Leave it to Ukraine to show us that duct tape and a good idea can still win the day. While the rest of the world obsesses over trillion-dollar F-47 stealth programs, Ukraine just strapped a couple of fighter jet missiles to a British truck and called it a plan.

Say hi to the Raven, an off-the-books masterpiece of battlefield bricolage. This British-supplied FrankenSAM is the latest example of Ukraine’s favorite wartime superpower: the ability to make anything deadly with just the right mix of fighting spirit, innovation, and a socket wrench.

And it’s not just improvisation, it’s a pattern. Ukrainian command has institutionalized creativity in a way that feels less like wartime adaptation and more like an open-source arms race.

Recently revealed in official Ukrainian videos, the Raven looks less like something out of Raytheon’s showroom and more like a Mad Max war rig, if Mad Max was fighting Iranian Shaheds and Russian Orlans instead of mutant biker gangs.