Scheduled to occur April 8-30, 2024, Charlie Battery will provide six Maneuver Short Range Air Defense, or M-SHORAD, Strykers and more than 40 Soldiers to support U.S. Army and NATO forces with short-range air defense during live-fire exercises as part of NATO’s DEFENDER 24’s Exercise Saber Strike in Poland. Saber Strike is one of three sub-exercises that comprise DEFENDER 24. During the exercise, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment will participate in convoy operations, a combined arms live-fire exercise supporting elements of the Spanish Army URO VAMTAC armoured vehicles and a fire support coordination exercise alongside Romanian air defense.
“This will be the first time in U.S. Army history that the M-SHORAD platform is truly integrated into a maneuver unit during a large-scale exercise, so we have been meticulously planning this exercise with 2nd Cavalry Regiment and NATO Allies since September 2023. Soldiers will get firsthand experience integrating short-range air defense with both U.S. and NATO forces. To be able to engage exercise targets with live rounds and maneuver downrange while protecting U.S. and NATO forces in the M-SHORAD will be an amazing experience,” said U.S. Army Capt. Paul Zavislak, Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment commander.
The 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery is a subordinate unit of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, it is comprise of five battery-level units. The Battalion was the first in the U.S. Army to field and test the M-SHORAD systems in 2022. The M-SHORAD is the U.S. Army’s newest and most advanced short-range air defense platform and provides short-range air defense to protect forces against fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aerial system threats. The 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery was constituted on October 16, 2018 in the Regular Army and its headquarters is located on Shipton Kaserne, Ansbach, Germany.
The M-SHORAD is the U.S. Army’s most advanced short-range air defense platform and provides short-range air defense to protect forces against fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aerial system threats. Normally the Stryker 8×8 armoured fighting vehicle are configured with a four-round Stinger missile pod and a twin Hellfire missile launcher rack either side of the turret, which can also accommodate a 30mm XM914 cannon and 7.62mm coaxial machine gun. Leonardo DRS’ M-SHORAD Inc 1 Mission Equipment Package (MEP) on a purpose-built Stryker in partnership with Leonardo DRS’ DRS RADA Technologies business, as well as L3Harris, Moog, and Northrop Grumman.
