The UK's Rapier surface to air missile systems could've been sent to Ukraine. The British government scrapped them.

The British army is in the final stages of retiring their 1990s vintage “Rapier FSC” surface to air missile systems - which are to be replaced by the vastly more capable Sky Sabre. But just because Rapier FSC has lived out its useful life in British service, that doesn’t mean the system could not have been very useful in Ukraine, which is desperate for any additional air defence as they suffer repeated waves of strikes from Russia’s Iranian supplied “Shahid 136” suicide drones and cruise missiles.

According to “The Military Balance, 2022”, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, at the start of 2022 14 Rapier FSC systems remained in active British service, with an unknown number in storage. 57 of the systems had been produced for both the British Army and the Royal Air Force in total. Additionally, there was no public record of these systems being disposed of via DESA - the Ministry of Defence’s organisation that handles the reselling of surplus British military equipment. 

There was no public record because the Ministry of Defence took the inexplicable decision to not store or sell these systems, but to destroy them instead.

Many would have doubtlessly argued that as Rapier FSC ultimately dates from the 1970s, the system is outdated, and not suitable for the modern battlefield. However, similar arguments were common before the Germans transferred their Flakpanzer Gepard self propelled anti aircraft guns to Ukraine. The Ukrainians since spoken very highly of the system, valuing its mobility, armour and accuracy against small targets, and have been seen pairing the German vehicles with their own Cold War era medium range surface to air missile systems. Rapier FSC itself was considered effective enough by the Ministry of Defence to be deployed in Stratford and five other locations in 2012, as part of the air defence shield for the 2012 London Olympics.

If it was considered effective enough to be deployed then, is it reasonable to suggest it is now completely useless ten years later?

Rapier FSC is not mobile - unlike the Gepard - and it is relatively short ranged. However, in a similar way to how it was used in 2012, it could have been easily deployed around critical Ukrainian infrastructure, creating a last ditch air defence shield against incoming cruise missiles and Iranian supplied “Shahid 136" drones. Such suicide drones are small, cheap - the reported cost is around $20,000 - and have been deployed in numbers, overwhelming Ukrainian air defence systems and depleting the Ukrainian finite stocks of anti-air missiles. 

The Rapier FSC was controlled by a Blindfire all-weather guidance radar, and is by all accounts a very accurate system. Archive footage of live fire exercises shows the system successfully engaging relatively small delta-winged target drones, very similar in size and profile to the Iranian supplied “Shahid 136”. Each launcher held eight ready to fire missiles, and the system could also engage two incoming targets simultaneously, both useful capabilities when facing down incoming drone swarms.

Asked for comment about the utility of such a system for Ukraine, Yuriy Sak adviser to Ukraine's Minister of Defence, was unequivocal - "The tactics of the aggressor are clear to us: by bombarding Ukraine with cheap Iranian drones the occupier seeks to exhaust our air defence resources. Systems such as Rapier FSC, despite the fact that they are mostly stationary, can also perform a critical function of protecting civil and energy infrastructure objects."

Supplying Rapier to Ukrainians would have also been cheap - this is a system that is being withdrawn from British service - so donating it to the Ukrainians will not place any major strain on the pressurised British defence budget. 

Obviously, this is if the British Ministry of Defence had not taken the decision to scrap an unknown number - possibly a majority of the remaining systems - in October, 2021. Despite Western intelligence being aware of the impending Russian build up on the Ukrainian border, and despite Sky Sabre almost certainly not being in active service at the time, the MOD decided to destroy these valuable air defence assets.