- Yes
- No
Yes, the British operate a fleet of OSAs
Introduction
The SA-8 Gecko, known in Soviet service as the 9K33 Osa, is a mobile, short-range surface-to-air missile system developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s and introduced into service in 1971. Designed to protect on-the-move ground forces, it combines a target acquisition radar, fire-control radar, and missile launchers on a single six-wheeled launch platform. 9M33 missiles allow engagement of aircraft at ranges of roughly 1.5 - 10 km and altitudes between 25 m and 5 km. Despite its age, the SA-8 remains operational globally in upgraded forms, with variants such as Osa-AK and Osa-AKM improving radar performance and overall capabilties.
RAF Spadeadam, in Cumbria, has a long and historied defence heritage. The site was originally selected in the 1950s as the test centre for the Blue Streak intermediate-range ballistic missile; and although the programme was cancelled in 1960, various large concrete structures such as launch pads remain. In 1976 the Royal Air Force took over the area, establishing what became Europe’s first Electronic Warfare Tactics Range, later known as the Electronic Warfare Training Facility (EWTF). Since then, RAF Spadeadam has provided a uniquely permissive environment for low-level and tactical air operations, supported by a large controlled airspace and an extensive array of simulated and real threat systems.
Within the EWTF, the SA-8 Gecko is one of the key real ground-based air defence systems used to train RAF and allied aircrews. An initial batch of vehicles was obtained from surplus East German stocks, alongside SA-6 Gainful systems and ZSU-23-4 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, with the SA-8s being fully functional, allowing aircraft to train against authentic radar and infrared threats. A later batch of vehicles was subsequently obtained from modernised Polish surplus, which included upgrades to the optics, FCS, and displays. Operated by specialist RAF personnel, including the Threat Delivery Flight, these systems are mobile and can be deployed unpredictably across the range and even beyond it, threatening aircraft during ingress and egress as well as over the range itself. Their presence enables realistic practice of tactics such as manoeuvre, chaff and flare deployment, and suppression of enemy air defences.
To maintain the relevance of the SA-8 at Spadeadam, the UK Ministry of Defence’s Air Defence & Air Traffic Systems Delivery Team awarded a £4 million contract to Babcock to overhaul and modernise two SA-8 systems used in electronic warfare training. The work includes complete strip-down, refurbishment, digital upgrades, new LCD displays, thermal and visual imagers, and improvements to reliability and maintainability.
Owned, operated, and modified by the RAF, the British SA-8 Gecko / 9K33 OSA systems in my opinion have a rather obvious home in the British tech tree, considering the vehicle is already present in the tree, just under a different flag.
Specifications
Images
Spoiler
Sources
Spoiler
Modernisation Documentation, Polish Surplus Vehicles (available here - cheers to Devil06 for these)
Making It Real - The EW Training Facility (EWTF) at RAF Spadeadam | Halldale Group
Home on the Range - Electronic Warfare - Armada International
https://www.raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/global-operations/exercise-arctic-challenge/
The RAF unit driving Soviet-era missile systems in the Arctic Circle to act as the 'bad guys'
