The US is pressing allies to hastily build a patchwork air defense network for Ukraine using NATO-compatible equipment — some ultra-modern, others older — to protect strategic targets from Russian strikes.
The effort was given added urgency after Moscow pummeled Ukraine with missiles this week, damaging energy facilities nationwide and leaving at least 20 people dead.
“What the [Ukrainian] leadership described that they needed yesterday most was air defense capability,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in Brussels on Thursday, a day after a meeting of 50 allied countries that have coordinated military support for Kyiv.
Photo: AP
To protect Ukraine from Russia’s varied threats, however, it is necessary to build air defenses made of multiple layers, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley said.
“What you’re looking at, really, is short-range, low-altitude systems, then medium-range, medium-altitude, and then long-range and high-altitude systems,” he said in Brussels on Wednesday.
These three levels can protect major cities and key infrastructure in Ukraine from Russian ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones.
“That doesn’t control all the airspace over Ukraine, but they are designed to control priority targets that Ukraine needs to protect,” Milley said at a news conference.
Washington has promised to provide Ukraine with the short to medium-range, medium-altitude NASAMS air defense system, with the first two arriving soon.
It has also ordered six more from manufacturer Raytheon, but those deliveries might not occur for two to three years.
Germany has delivered the first of the latest-generation Iris-T defense systems, but Kyiv will have to wait until next year for three others that have been promised. The medium-range, high-altitude Iris-T system is designed to protect a small city.
To accelerate the process, the US urged its allies on Wednesday to provide their available anti-aircraft equipment — even if it is older — as long as it meets NATO standards.
Spain was the first to respond positively to that call. It plans to send Ukraine four medium-range Hawk surface-to-air systems, which first went into service during the Cold War and have been modernized over the years.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that his country would provide “radars, systems and missiles to protect [Ukrainians] from these attacks.”
He did not specify the type of anti-aircraft defenses planned, but a US military official mentioned the SAMP/T high-altitude system known as “Mamba,” which is in service in France, Italy and Singapore, and is a European competitor to the US Patriot system.
Paris has also provided the short-range Crotale system, it added.
The UK on Wednesday said that it was sending AMRAAM missiles, which are launched by US systems.
Washington is also interested in the option of the Spada 2000 system, which like Mamba is manufactured by Europe’s MBDA, a US military official said on condition of anonymity.
Spada is a modernized version of a medium-altitude and range system in service since the 1980s in Italy. It has also been sold to Kuwait, Spain and Pakistan.
To defend against ballistic missiles, Washington is also considering providing Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine. The US military does not have enough to supply them to Kyiv, but Washington is lobbying for participation from other countries that have them, and is also trying to convince Israel to provide parts of its Iron Dome system.
“Many countries have Patriot. Many countries have other systems,” Milley said in Brussels. “There’s a whole series of Israeli systems that are quite capable.”
Once the systems are provided, Ukrainian forces need to be trained on their use, and must “make sure that they can link together with the command-and-control and communication systems, and make sure they have radars that can talk to each other so that they can acquire targets,” he said.
“It’s quite complicated from a technical standpoint,” Milley added. “It’ll take a little bit of time.”
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