IN Brief:
- HENSOLDT and Ukraine have signed an MoU covering further large scale radar deliveries and continued capability development.
- The partners will examine deployment and joint operation of a long range system identified by HENSOLDT as TRL-4D LR.
- The agreement expands cooperation that already includes TRML-4D deliveries and ballistic missile defence development.
HENSOLDT and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence have signed a memorandum covering further large scale radar deliveries, continued development of radar capabilities and the possible deployment and joint operation of long range surveillance systems.
The agreement was signed in Kyiv during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s visit and extends an established relationship rather than opening a new equipment route. HENSOLDT radars are already deployed in Ukrainian air defence, while a separate industrial partnership with Ukrainian company Fire Point is developing a ballistic missile defence system around existing sensor and interceptor technologies.
No quantities, values or delivery dates have been disclosed for the additional radar systems in the new memorandum. Its scope goes beyond equipment purchases, however, because HENSOLDT and the ministry also intend to develop radar capability and examine the joint operation of a long range sensor identified in the company’s release as “TRL-4D LR”.
That designation warrants care because HENSOLDT’s current public product material separately identifies TRML-4D as its mobile air surveillance and target acquisition radar and TRS-4D/LR ROT as a long range radar configuration. “TRL-4D LR” appears in both the English and German versions of the 5 October announcement, so it is retained here exactly as published rather than being silently replaced with a better known product name.
TRML-4D provides the clearest technical reference point for HENSOLDT’s existing Ukrainian radar work. The mobile AESA system can track more than 1,500 targets in parallel, has an instrumented range of 250km and an instrumented altitude of 30km, and can be set up or packed away in around 10 to 15 minutes. It is intended to detect and classify targets including aircraft, cruise missiles, helicopters and drones while supporting short and medium range surface to air missile systems.
The radar uses electronically steered beams and Doppler processing to maintain surveillance and tracking at high update rates without mechanically pointing an antenna at each target. Its processing has to separate fast, low flying or manoeuvring objects from clutter while generating tracks quickly enough for a command system to assign a weapon. HENSOLDT also provides functions for cued search, weapon tracking and kill indication within the radar architecture.
Ukraine already has a substantial HENSOLDT sensor base. A package announced in July 2025 was worth more than €340 million and included further TRML-4D and SPEXER radars, while HENSOLDT has repeatedly reported TRML-4D use in Ukrainian air defence. The new memorandum therefore adds scale and potential new sensor layers around equipment already operating in the country.
Ballistic missile defence introduces a different detection problem from the low altitude targets central to many counter drone and short range air defence missions. HENSOLDT and Fire Point announced the FREYJA partnership in June 2026 to combine available components into a system capable of detecting and intercepting ballistic missiles, with HENSOLDT responsible for radar production, testing, delivery and integration support.
The 5 October memorandum explicitly expands cooperation already agreed in ballistic missile defence, but the public material does not explain how the proposed long range radar would sit alongside FREYJA, TRML-4D or Ukraine’s existing IRIS-T architecture. A layered network could use sensors with different ranges and elevation coverage to build one recognised air picture, but the interfaces, command arrangement and intended division of roles have not been disclosed.
Additional sensors also increase the importance of track fusion. Two radars observing the same object can generate separate measurements with different update rates, accuracy and geometry; a command system has to correlate those observations without treating them as separate threats. When ballistic missiles, aircraft, cruise missiles and small drones occupy the same wider battlespace, sensor management becomes as important as the maximum detection range quoted for any individual radar.
Production capacity will shape how quickly the agreement can move beyond planning. HENSOLDT has expanded radar manufacturing in response to European air defence demand and has previously said more than 80 air defence radars of various ranges were under contract through the European Sky Shield Initiative alone. Ukrainian requirements add continuing demand for new systems while equipment already in service also needs maintenance, software support and replacement capacity.
The memorandum now establishes a route for larger radar deliveries and deeper technical cooperation without fixing the eventual scale. Firm orders, production quantities and clarification of the TRL-4D LR designation will determine how the agreement changes Ukraine’s sensor architecture. Until then, the confirmed development is an expansion of an existing industrial and operational partnership rather than the launch of a fully defined new radar programme.
