“Come Back Alive” Modernizes a Surface-to-Air Missile System for the First Time in the Charitable Sector

The “Come Back Alive” Foundation has launched the HORNET project and invested more than 14 million Ukrainian hryvnias (UAH) in modernizing the Osa surface-to-air missile system (SAM), whose primary mission is to shoot down enemy drones as well as helicopters, aircraft, and missiles.

All Air Defense Missile Regiments of the Ukrainian Ground Forces that operate the Osa have received the upgraded systems. Thanks to HORNET, after modernization the systems can operate not only with the standard 9M33M3 surface-to-air missiles, which are currently in short supply, but also with R-73 air-to-air guided missiles, which Ukraine currently has in adequate supply.

“An aviation missile has a certain advantage because it works on a ‘fire-and-forget’ principle and does not need to be guided like the Osa’s standard missile. Immediately after launch, the R-73 allows crews to relocate from their positions to avoid return fire,” explains Oleksii Dubynka, a consultant for “Come Back Alive” and a servicemember of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to him, the modernization of the Osa in the Ground Forces is comparable to the FrankenSAM program that, with U.S. assistance, is being implemented in the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“The difference,” Dubynka says, “is that under the Air Force’s FrankenSAM program we use air-to-air missiles supplied to Ukraine by partners, whereas under HORNET we are working with missiles and surface-to-air missile systems that our military has been using since the 1970s.”

HORNET was not a public fundraising campaign by “Come Back Alive”. To implement the project, the Foundation used funds from its general charitable accounts.

Everyone can support the Defense Forces of Ukraine and help “Come Back Alive” implement initiatives, including for the Ground Forces and the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, via the Foundation’s official channels.