The soldiers of Artillery Training Battalion 345 are taking part in the Celtic Storm II exercise with their COBRA artillery detection radar. Source: Bundeswehr/Mario Bähr
Germany is planning to supply Kiev with COBRA counter-battery radars to help its forces take on the Russian artillery, Die Welt reported on May 5.
According to the news outlet, Kiev initially requested the supply of 40 COBRA systems. However, German can only supply five of its stock of 19 systems.
The COBRA [COunter Battery RAdar] was developed by Thales, Airbus Defence and Space and Lockheed Martin for the German Armed Forces, the French Army and the British Army.
On it’s website, the German military says that the system’s state-of-the-art active, phase-controlled antenna “scans the horizon and recognizes or tracks projectiles and rockets until the precise launch coordinates, and possibly also the impact coordinates, can be determined”.
The system is capable of spotting 40 enemy artillery positions, mortars, and rocket launchers within a range of 100 kilometers in just two minutes.
The COBRA systems will likely be working in Ukraine with German-made Panzerhaubitze 2000 155 mm self-propelled howitzers. It was confirmed on May 6 that the Dutch and German governments had approved sending 12 of the heavy howitzer to Kiev forces.
Germany is also reportedly considering supplying Kiev forces with Spexer radars and Nightowl long-range surveillance cameras. The Spexer radar is used to detect aircraft, including drones, helicopters and fighter jets, as well as armored vehicles and naval vessels. The Nightowl camera can spot vehicles at night from several kilometers away.
In the last two months, Germany became one of the main military backers of Kiev. Berlin has supplied Kiev forces with loads of weapons, including thousands of anti-tank rockets and anti-aircraft missiles, since the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
Germany hopes that Western military support to Kiev forces will eventually lead to the failure of the Russian special military operation.
