Are Haftar Army’s Pantsir Missile Systems supplied only by UAE?
Among the nine Haftar Armed Forces’ (HAF) Pantsir air defense systems claimed to be destroyed by the Libyan Army recently, one of them was mounted on a vehicle different to the ones supplied to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Russian-made Pantsir systems observed in Libya use German-built MAN SX45 Heavy Mobility Truck as the system’s ground mobility and transporter erector launcher (TELAR) platform.
“Only the UAE uses this configuration,” states a report by United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
All other export variants are mounted on: BAZ-6909 8x8, Ural-53234 8x8, KAMAZ-6560 8x8 or Asrolog MKZT79230 chassis.
“It is unclear if the UAE also bought KAMAZ variants or if another country is sending Pantsirs to Libya,” Rob Lee, an expert on Russia's military said in a tweet on May 21.
Photographs circulating on the social media show one of the Pantsir systems destroyed in airstrikes by the Libyan Army using Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 combat drones, mounted on a KAMAZ-6560 chassis.
Moreover, the radar fitted on the anti-aircraft system is an octagonal, “two-faced” SOTS S-band radar in contrast to the rectangular flat-panel radar on the S1.
“Hard to be sure, but it appears the aquisition radar is the newer octagonal-shaped S-band 1RS1-3-RLM radar. It is not the older rectangular radar which all Emirati Pantsirs have,” the expert noted.
The Pantsir S2 system that entered Russian military service in 2015 uses the latest S-band radar and KAMAZ 6560 8x8 truck chassis. It is an improved version of S1 with a range of reportedly over 40km. It uses the same missile launcher and anti-aircraft cannons.
“Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Ethiopia, and some other countries have the newer version,” Lee added.
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