BRITISH missile launchers made from flatbed trucks and bits of old fighter jets have downed hundreds of Russian rockets and drones.
These Raven air defence systems were custom built for Ukraine and boast a staggering 90 per cent success rate, troops who use them have told The Sun.
They fire devastating heat-seeking ASRAAM missiles — designed for air-to-air combat — from six-wheeler all-terrain Supacat trucks.
The rails that hold the missiles were taken from disused fighters including Red Arrows-style Hawk T1s, Jaguars and Tornados.
The UK has donated 13 launchers along with 750 missiles worth £200,000 each.
And in a double blow for tyrant Putin, almost half those missiles have been paid for with the interest seized from frozen Russian assets.
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The Sun joined a Raven crew near the Russian frontline moments after a fighter jet roared over our heads in eastern Ukraine.
Unit commander Nick, 24, said his truck had shot down 41 Russian Shahed drones since Moscow dramatically ramped up its air blitz in July.
Kill marks on a second Raven show it has shot down at least 74 Russian aircraft — including Shahed and Orlan drones and at least one air-launched cruise missile.
Nick said: “There has been a lot more work since July. The number of Shaheds flying in has really increased.”
The devastating surge in airstrikes came days after President Trump held a phone call with Putin which he said “didn’t make any progress”.
Moscow fired a record 4,072 missiles during a two-week window in July and there has been hardly any let-up despite Putin’s lies that he wants to make peace.
On September 7 he unleashed 823 missiles and drones, the largest nightly bombardment of the war.
Nick, who was studying at university before Putin launched his full- scale invasion, said: “Our strike rate is 90 per cent, plus or minus.
“But sometimes it is such a big number flying at once that we can’t shoot them all down.”
His team are part of a huge top-secret network of air-defence soldiers and weapons that range from World War Two-style flak guns to F-16 jets and Patriot missiles.
The truck can fire two missiles simultaneously and on their busiest nights they have reloaded multiple times.
Kill marks on a second Raven show it has shot down at least 74 Russian aircraft — including Shahed and Orlan drones and at least one air-launched cruise missile
Their strike rate has dramatically improved from around 70 per cent announced by the UK MoD in May.
At that time the UK said Raven had launched “over 400” missiles at aerial targets since arriving in 2023.
The missiles can lock on to targets before or after they are fired. They reach three times the speed of sound and have a range of 16 miles.
But their £200,000 price tag is almost ten times as much as the Shaheds they mostly shoot down.
Insisting it was worth it, Nick said: “What is the cost of a drone that hits an apartment building?
“It is always better to use a rocket than let a Shahed hit a town.”
Footage from Ukraine’s Air Force showed a second Raven vehicle emblazoned with at least 74 “kill marks” from successful shoot-down missions, including a cruise missile.
Jerry-rigged system
The trucks are based on Supacat chassis which were used to make the Army’s Coyote desert vehicles.
Colonel Olly Todd, from the UK’s Taskforce Kindred, said the RAF’s Air and Space Warfare Centre took just four months to get the launcher from concept to delivery.
It followed an earlier jerry-rigged system that saw MoD boffins find a way to fire Brimstone air-to-ground missiles from a lorry.
Defence sources said engineers bought a generator from a local DIY store to test the concept in 2023.
The UK Ministry of Defence is currently working with Ukraine to mass produce “interceptor drones” that can down Shaheds for a few thousand pounds.
Ukraine had hoped Donald Trump would agree to supply them with Tomahawk cruise missiles when he met President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.
The missiles have a range of some 2,500km and could blitz Russia’s main Shahed drone factory, slashing their rate of production.
We should all put pressure on Russia to stop its aggression. Appeasement never was a road to a just and lasting peace
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk
But Trump appeared to make yet another U-turn, warning Zelensky that Ukraine would be “crushed” unless it caved in to Putin’s demands.
US media reports said Trump complained to Zelensky that he had not been given a Nobel peace prize.
Their latest face-to-face meeting, on Friday, came less than 24 hours after the US President held yet another phone call with Putin.
A former British diplomat said: “He only remembers what the last person told him.”
European leaders rallied round Zelensky.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: “None of us should put pressure on Zelensky when it comes to territorial concessions.
“We should all put pressure on Russia to stop its aggression. Appeasement never was a road to a just and lasting peace.”
Last night Defence Secretary John Healey vowed Britain would start manufacturing Octopus interceptor drones “within weeks”.
He said Russian strikes increased every month, adding: “Despite his rhetoric, Putin shows no sign of relenting in his attempt to wipe a sovereign nation off the map.”
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And he warned Putin sees Britain as his “number one enemy”.
- Additional reporting Den Savenkov
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