By Dylan Malyasov
Pro-Kremlin media reported that Ukraine launched two cruise missiles at Russian-occupied Luhansk on Friday, May 12th. Images appeared on the social media platform Telegram, showing what appears to be the wreckage of an ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, or MALD. It is a U.S. missile designed to use in suppressing enemy air defenses.
MALD is a programmable, low-cost, modular, autonomous flight vehicle that mimics U.S. or allied aircraft to confuse enemy Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS).
Operators send a formation of the MALD decoys into hostile airspace. The flexible, modular systems fly a preprogrammed mission that protects allied aircraft while confusing enemy-integrated air defense systems. Each craft weighs less than 300 pounds and has a range of around 500 nautical miles.
Previously, there were no reports about deliveries of these systems to Ukraine.
Ukraine demonstrates phenomenal results of interaction of examples of precision weapons into its old platforms. Earlier, it became known about the integration of AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles on MiG-29 fighter jets and Zuni unguided rockets on Su-25 attack aircraft.
