American self-propelled surface-to-air missile systems, called the  Avenger, took part in a joint live-fire exercise in Bulgaria with Soviet-made Osa and Kub mobile surface-to-air missile systems.

The Avenger air defense system assigned to the 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment participated at a live-fire missile training near Shabla, Jun. 19, 2019 during exercise Shabla 19.  SHABLA 19 is a bilateral, Joint Air Defense Live Fire exercise hosted by Bulgarian Armed Forces in Shabla, Bulgaria, from June 10-14, 2019.

The peculiarity of the exercise was the participation of both American Avenger systems and Osa (SA-8 Gecko) and Kub (SA-6 “Gainful”) of the Bulgarian Armed Forces.

SHABLA 19 is a designed to improve readiness and interoperability between the Bulgarian Air Force, Navy and Land Forces, and the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, U.S. Army Europe.

The Avenger was originally developed for the United States Armed Forces and is currently used by the U.S. Army.

The fully automated, short-range Boeing Avenger air defense system is the Army’s premier shoot-on-the-move air defense weapon. It is a lightweight, highly mobile, easily transportable surface-to-air missile fire unit with eight Stinger missiles in two missile pods. It acquires, identifies, tracks and engages targets (low-flying helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft) from a stationary or moving position.

Mounted on a high-mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicle, the Avenger can operate in extreme weather conditions. Its infrared system, computer, communications equipment and laser rangefinder locate targets in daylight and at night.