The Czech crowdfunding campaign “Gift for Putin” has successfully raised new funds to purchase 15 Viktor mobile short-range air defense systems for Ukraine. The vehicle is developed and manufactured by the Czech company Excalibur Army.
The “Gift for Putin” project was founded by Czech businessman Dalibor Dědek and since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, several hundred thousand Euros were donated by Czechs to support the war effort allowing the purchase of military equipment for Ukrainian soldiers.
In October 2022, the Czech crowdfunding campaign had already successfully raised more than €1.30 million to buy a modernized tank for the Ukrainian army. The fund was backed by the Czech defense ministry and Ukraine’s embassy in Prague.
According to information published on the official website “Gift for Putin”, more than €14 million euros have already been collected since the start of the campaign from more than 91,000 donors.
The Czech Company Excalibur Army has developed a new air defense system called Viktor based on a civilian Toyota pickup chassis fitted with an improved ZPU-2, a Soviet-made 14.5mm anti-aircraft twin gun mounted on the rear of the flatbed platform. It has been designed to offer a low-cost solution of air defense system able to destroy aerial targets flying at low-altitude such as drones, aircraft or helicopters.
The Viktor uses a modified Toyota pickup chassis including a reinforced suspension and a modified body allowing firing from inside of the crew cabin. Using the Toyota chassis, the vehicle offers high mobility in the road and off-road conditions.
The main armament of the Viktor consists of one modernized ZPU-2, a Soviet-made 14.5mm anti-aircraft twin gun. The weapon system is armed with two 14.5 mm Vladimirova KPV (Krubnokalibernyj Pulemet Vladimirova) heavy machine guns. it is equipped with day/night sights for aerial targets and another sight to fire against land targets with a maximum firing range of up to 2 km.
Both 14.5 heavy machine gun has 300 rounds of ammunition stored in ammo box mounted on each side of the weapon carriage. Another supply of 300 rounds is also carried by the vehicle.
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