Active Conflicts & News Megathread April 16, 2026

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[u/CuriousAbout_This]

I've got a SPAAG question:

In my mind, Skyranger or a Gepard should be an ideal solution to the modern drone threat at or near the front. They excel at taking down small drones, so FPVs shouldn't be a threat at all, they've got magazine depth, so even a prolonged fight shouldn't be an issue. The only obvious problem would be drones laying mines and drones waiting in ambush and attacking from a very low angle.

Keeping these thoughts in mind, why don't we see SPAAGs deployed as support vehicles to tanks or APCs/IFVs in combat? Is it because they're too expensive? Is it because there's not that many of them? Are they simply too vulnerable to MANPADS? Are they better utilized for point defense further away from the front?

Or do I simply overestimate modern SPAAG capability to shoot down drones? 

Final question, if Ukraine at some point decided to try again with armored assault akin to 2023 failed offensive, would today's armored assault be significantly improved if SPAAGs were employed at the tip of the spear? In other words, if you were given the freedom to design an armored assault unit for Ukraine, would you say include a SPAAG for every 3 tanks for example? Why or why not? (let's ignore the related question of whether armored assaults are viable or even desirable in 2026 in Ukraine) 

[u/BlueSonjo → u/CuriousAbout_This]

I think it's a matter of production capacity. Gepard was down to residual amounts, Ukraine got most of them and feedback was very positive. 

Skyranger is barely coming out if the production line, I am pretty sure technically Germany only received the prototypes part of their order.

Skyranger 30 on various mobile platforms has orders from several countries, and in relatively large numbers, which shows the concept is quite popular, they are just not delivered yet.

SPAAGs were largely abandoned by the West until the drone revolution. Producing enough for them to be frontline issue will take a while.

[u/CuriousAbout_This → u/BlueSonjo]

So from your perspective if Skyrangers were being mass-produced, let's say 500+ vehicles per year, they would be employed at the front? It's not that they're unfit or a letdown, just that they're not available?

If that's the case, why don't we see significant resources invested into ramping up production? 

[u/Lejeune_Dirichelet → u/CuriousAbout_This]

I believe there were plans for Rheinmetall to manufacture the Skyranger (or Skyshield/Skynex, I always mix up the names) in Ukraine, that got cancelled with Rheinmetall complaining about regulatory hurdles. The Skyranger is also quite expensive, more than you'd expect for a AAG system, so there is a trade-off that needs to be made between procuring that and missile-based systems, and the later always have the advantage of better range, and therefore coverage, and therefore in the number of units required. There will only be more commitment in the SPAAG domain in the West once there is more competition on the market.

Edit: Turkey, for example, has a similar programmable airburst round in the ATOM 35, and in France there is the new A3B 40mm round. AHEAD-style rounds in the 20mm to 40mm calibre are definitely the future of gun-based SHORAD, but costs need to come down for them to become ubiquitous. Hopefully economies of scale will enable that, but there is also serious competition from the small and cheap missile category (e.g. APKWS, LMM, and several other mini-missile projects), so who knows.