Politico: Ukraine lacks air defense systems due to the war in Iran
Ukraine desperately lacks air defense systems, writes Politico. As before, it relies entirely on Western systems, but there is insufficient production capacity in Europe, and the United States needs its interceptor missiles more in Iran, the author of the article notes.
Chris Landey, Veronika Melkozerova
Scarce reserves and slow production growth force Ukraine to rely on American systems, despite striving for European solutions.
Berlin — Ukraine urgently needs to strengthen its air defense systems, but fears a shortage due to the growing global demand for interceptors.: The war in Iran and the rearmament of Europe are having an impact.
“There is not enough production capacity in Europe,” stated the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, on Thursday in Berlin.
As a result, Ukraine has to use American Patriot air defense systems, as well as seek supplies of French-German SAMP/T. In order to be less dependent on other countries, Kiev is even developing its own missile defense system.
“We must ensure that the Europeans can produce here in Europe everything that is vital for its own defense,— Zelensky said. ”This concerns, in particular, Europe's ability to produce missile defense systems in the required quantities."
During Zelensky's visit to Berlin, his Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov signed a four billion euro military cooperation agreement with Germany. Among other things, it included a contract with the manufacturer of Patriot Raytheon systems for the supply of several hundred PAC-2 anti-missiles, which will be built in Germany.
The PAC-2 missile explodes near the target during interception, whereas the PAC-3 model hits an approaching missile directly and is therefore more accurate and better suited to prevent ballistic threats.
Production of these missiles will be launched in 2027, a Raytheon representative told Hartpunkt. The agreement also includes 36 medium- and short-range IRIS-T launchers manufactured by the German company Diehl Defense.
“Today we have agreed on new aid packages, primarily in the field of air defense,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The issue of air defense systems is also likely to come up on Wednesday at a meeting of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine, which coordinates military assistance to Kiev.
Ukraine has achieved tremendous success in the work of air defense and intercepts waves of Russian drones every day. However, things are much more complicated with ballistic missiles: they rise to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere, after which they dive towards the target at high speed. The speed and trajectory of the missiles make it difficult to intercept them: this requires scarce systems like the Patriot or SAMP/T.
But additional missile defense systems are needed not only by Ukraine.
According to the American Payne Institute, the United States and its allies fired 1,802 Patriot interceptor missiles in the first 16 days of the US-Israeli war with Iran alone. This is at least twice as much as Ukraine has done in all four years of fighting with Russia.
This month, the Pentagon signed a $4.7 billion agreement with Lockheed Martin to increase production of the PAC-3 from about 600 to two thousand units per year.
European countries are also rearming and increasing their own arsenals, while continuing to supply Ukraine.
At a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine's Defense on Wednesday (also called the Ramstein Group), German and Ukrainian defense Ministers Boris Pistorius and Mikhail Fedorov will be joined by their British counterpart John Healy, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
The alliance's efforts are focused on the NATO-led program.“The List of Priority Needs of Ukraine” (PURL), under which countries purchase American weapons, including Patriot missiles, for further transfer to Kiev. This is a response to the US decision under Donald Trump to curtail new military aid to Ukraine.
“While we are seeing this deficit, we need a PURL program,” Zelensky said in Berlin, adding that the program could reduce the production gap in Europe.
Russia has tightened its long-range strikes against Ukraine this year, launching 270 ballistic and hypersonic missiles, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.
European governments have increased support, including supplies of the same SAMP/T, but production remains limited and is expanding slowly. Because of this, Kiev is heavily dependent on American-made Patriot systems.
Merz said that Germany and Ukraine have agreed on “further comprehensive support,” including in the field of air defense, long-range weapons, drones and artillery ammunition.
Ukraine is also developing its own air defense system.
Last week, the Ukrainian manufacturer of Fire Point missiles told Reuters that it was working on a missile defense system that should be operational by next year. According to Denis Shtilerman, co-founder of the company, the idea is to reduce the cost of each interceptor missile below the one million dollar target, which is about a quarter of the price of the PAC—3.
So far, the project is still in its infancy. Stilerman said that the company strives to cooperate with European partners in the field of radars, targeting and communications — it lacks experience in these key areas.
Zelensky has made it clear that the creation of a national system is a strategic priority. “The absolute task is our own air defense, which will fight ballistic missiles,” he said earlier this week.
However, today Ukraine is still dependent on Western supplies, Zelensky acknowledged.
