Polish company WB Electronics and  Ukraine’s state-owned defense industrial group, UkrOboronProm planning to jointly develop a new medium-range air defense system, according to a WB Electronics representative Roman Mushal.

During a scientific and practical conference on the problems of Polish air defense, Roman Mushal said that Polish private defense company WB Electronics intends to jointly with Ukraine implement a project to develop a mobile, medium-range surface-to-air guided missile system.

According to him, at the heart of the project should be the advanced version of the Ukrainian-made R-27 air-to-air guided missile. R. Mushal noted that most of the necessary elements have already been created – the engine, fuel, homing heads (active, passive and thermal imaging).

He stated that the time required for the deployment of production in Poland is approximately three years.

The new medium-range missile system will be used to protect the important buildings, objects as well as ground troops against all types of aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles, guided weapons, air-to-surface missiles, anti-ship missiles, anti-radar rockets and large-calibre rockets.

The new air defense system will have a range of up to about 30 km for a missile with infrared homing (WICHER-ET), 25 km for a version with active-radar homing (WICHER-EA) and almost 110 km for passive radar version (WICHER PEP).

The new medium-range air defense system will have a vertical launching system.

The air defense system also could be mounted on a locally produced Jelcz 662D truck. The total mass of the chassis (maximum load) is 14,000 kg (11,000 kg).