The first BAE Systems Tridon Mk2 40 mm air defence systems are on their way to Ukraine, via Sweden, to counter the threat from Russian Shahed-type drones and cruise missiles, a company spokesman confirmed at Eurosatory 2026 on 17 June.
The systems have been acquired under a joint Danish-Swedish co-financing initiative announced in February 2026. The precise number of Tridon Mk2 systems being procured for Ukraine has not been stated, but Sweden has financed the initiative to the tune of SEK 2.1 billion (EUR 191 million), while Denmark has contributed SEK 480 million. It has been estimated that this would account for around 15 to 20 system, or a full air defence battalion’s worth of equipment.
Separately, in April 2026 the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) awarded BAE Systems a contract worth USD 180 million (EUR 157 million) for Tridon Mk2 systems.
The Tridon Mk2, which made its public debut at Eurosatory 2024, is a modular and cost-effective air defence system centred around BAE Systems’ battle-proven Bofors 40 Mk4 (L/70) 40 mm naval gun firing Bofors 3P (Pre-fragmented, Programmable, Proximity-fuzed) ammunition. The gun is mounted on a high-mobility truck and, while primarily guided by an opto-electronic sensor, can also be integrated with light surveillance and target acquisition radars such as the Saab Giraffe 1X.
The Bofors 40 Mk4 has an effective range of up to 12 km, depending on the target, selected ammunition, sensor suite and surrounding terrain.
The Tridon Mk2’s fire control system, a variant of the Hawkeye AD system developed by Chess Dynamics, allows the Bofors 40 Mk4 to be fired from the truck’s protected cab or remotely, keeping the crew safe if the system is attacked.
“We’re making those first deliveries to Sweden, and ultimately on to Ukraine, while still refining detailed requirements and capability, and so our ability to iterate that and deliver it to the field rapidly is a key feature,” Brian Gothright, BAE Systems’ vice president of business development for platforms and Services, told journalists at Eurosatory 2026.
Gothright added that, with regard to other customers for the system, BAE Systems is “talking to almost everybody about Tridon”.
“The nice thing here is it’s very customisable,” he added, “so you can have a different radio suite, different radar suite; these effectively will all be plug and play, and so really, for us, it’s about being able to scale to meet the demand, and we can do that successfully for Tridon.”
Gothright cautioned, however, that BAE Systems will have to look at ramping its output of Bofors 3P ammunition.
“Our challenge is now meeting the demand that comes with ammunition to really give the full complement to the battlefield of sufficient amounts of 3P, so that’s really where our operations focus,” he said. “We’re talking about ramping from tens of thousands of rounds a year to perhaps as much as 100,000 rounds, to just give you a perspective into the scale of the demand for munitions.”
