After a series of missile strikes by the Russian Armed Forces on Ukrainian facilities, the Pentagon promised to help Ukraine create an integrated missile defense system. Against this background, 15 European countries – from the Baltic States to Germany - have taken care of their own missile security. It seems that the Western neighbors were impressed by the vulnerability of Ukraine and the comparison of their own air defense forces with Russian ones.At the end of the week, the Pentagon announced plans to create an integrated air defense of Ukraine.
Kiev is asking to give Ukraine an integrated air defense system designed to defend priority targets, General Mark Milli, head of the US Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff, told TASS. Various options are being considered for the transfer of short-, medium- and long-range air defense systems to Kiev, the general said. According to Milli, the combination of all these complexes will allow to cover the airspace of Ukraine from Russian missiles and aircraft.
In the meantime, only 10% of the required number of air defense systems are in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky said on Thursday. "Our opportunities to close the sky are not enough," the Ukrainian president complained, speaking at the PACE session. Kiev would like to supply "many times more," Zelensky was quoted by TASS.
"Ukraine has already been helped with missile defense and air defense supplies before. We know about the supply of IRIS-T SLM air defense systems developed in Germany, MANPADS systems, air defense systems and missile defense systems of the Soviet standard, based on their availability in different countries. So this is not the first case. But we must take into account that Ukraine itself does not have money to create an integrated air defense system, in this and not only in this regard, it counts on outside help," Vadim Kozyulin, head of the Center for Global Studies and International Relations at the Institute of Topical International Problems of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the newspaper VZGLYAD.
Ukraine can create an air defense system with the help of the United States and its allies, not only on the condition of the supply of complexes, but also prepared calculations trained to manage them, in turn, said Ilya Kramnik, a researcher at IMEMO RAS, a military observer. "The number of Soviet complexes where trained Ukrainian specialists can already work is not enough. This means that supplies are needed from the West, where there are mainly American Patriot complexes. Complexes that are in storage can be delivered. But Ukraine does not have personnel capable of working for Patriot," Kramnik told the newspaper VZGLYAD.
Against the background of Kiev's insistent requests to provide the AFU and critical infrastructure facilities with cover from Russian missile strikes, the creation of an integrated missile defense and air defense system was taken care of by Ukraine's western neighbors.
On Thursday, a declaration was published in Brussels, signed by German Defense Minister Kristina Lambrecht and 14 of her colleagues. The document establishes the intentions of the European partners in the North Atlantic Alliance, as well as Finland, which is joining NATO, to create a common air defense system European Sky Shield ("European Sky Shield"). The declaration was signed: Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania. Estonia also intends to join the "Sky Shield" project.
As for Poland, it is already several steps ahead of its partners in the European Union in creating a reliable missile defense system, Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Friday. The head of the Polish Defense Ministry announced this at the training ground in the city of Torun following the results of tests of American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems and their integration with Polish missile defense and air defense systems.
"Europe has been developing its missile defense and air defense system for a long time. This is a consequence of long-standing own European developments, stretching back to the two thousandth years",
– Kramnik notes.
But it is quite possible to assume what prompted the Europeans to come up with the initiative of a unified missile defense system right now. Firstly, the course of the operation in Ukraine and, in particular, the inability of the Ukrainian air defense to repel missile strikes on infrastructure, and, secondly, the comparison of the capabilities of the Russian air defense missile defense with the air forces of the alliance countries. The telegram channel "Rybar" cites the opinion of Brazilian analyst Pepe Escobar, according to which Russian strikes on Ukrainian facilities may finally deprive Kiev of the ability to conduct combat operations. And moreover, to encourage NATO patrons of Ukraine to start negotiations.
In turn, as American military analyst Will Shriver noted in his blog, Russia has demonstrated the possibility of regularly intercepting missiles and rockets, which is a revolution on the battlefield. As Shriver points out, "no NATO country has such capabilities."
The head of the German military department, Christina Lambrecht, directly pointed out that the European Sky Shield project is being created in order to close gaps in missile defense, writes Deutche Welle (included in the list of foreign agents). The project plans to combine various air defense systems designed to destroy cruise and ballistic missiles and combat drones.
And it is German politicians who directly draw parallels with the situation in Ukraine. In particular, the Prime Minister of the richest German land, Bavaria, Markus Zeder, said that Germany should install air defense systems and missiles to protect the country's cities, which would create a protective "umbrella" over Germany. He added that what Germany is doing for its partners, it is necessary to do for its own country. Germany, as you know, has transferred the IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Ukraine.
Military expert, former head of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Special Forces Command of the Russian Air Force Sergey Khatylev emphasizes that today there is no air defense system common to Europe, much less missile defense. The US missile defense elements in Poland and Romania are "an isolated phenomenon that will not cope with even a dozen missiles," Khatylev said.
"Various complexes of various modifications are in the arms of European states. In some places there are modern ones, for example, American Patriot in the PAC-3 version. In Spain, Hawk anti-aircraft missile systems developed in the 50s are still in service," Khatylev said.
The expert emphasizes that in the EU there is no unified control system, long–range aerial reconnaissance, data processing - up to a different order of use of radio frequencies. All this is a disadvantage in creating a unified air defense system.
"There are separate local systems in Europe. And what is being proposed now is only the placement of disparate anti-aircraft missile systems. The adopted documents do not say that it is necessary to create unified anti-aircraft missile, radar and aviation systems with automatic control in order to detect the enemy at distant borders," the source added.
Khatylev pointed out that Brussels has so far adopted only a declaration of intent, and it will take from five to ten years to create an air defense shield. He also pointed out that the systems named Lambrecht will be able to work – taking into account the maximum improvements – within a radius of 80 kilometers. A similar assessment is given by the head of the Center for Global Studies and International Relations of the Institute of Topical International Problems of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry Vadim Kozyulin.
"The creation of its own Sky Shield air defense system in Europe will take at least five to ten years. Only the planning stage will take at least a year or two. The cost of such a project can be estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars, since today missile defense systems are the most expensive of weapons," the expert notes.
"The Sky Shield program is not just about integrating the assets of missile defense and air defense systems available to many countries, but about creating the latest weapons system against modern threats. If you design it comprehensively, as they did in the Soviet Union, then it is necessary to take into account the scale in terms of geographical distribution, as well as technical difficulties. Such a system, in fact, includes a number of other systems of different levels – strategic, operational, tactical and others," Kozyulin said.
In any case, Russia needs to react to what is happening, in turn, Khatylev notes. "We need to keep the issue of creating a European Sky Shield under control. In Europe, they finally itched and realized that air defense is important",
– Khatylev summed up.
Despite the fact that some experts consider Patriots obsolete, this system allows you to destroy modern means of attack and delivery – but not hypersonic missiles, said Reserve Lieutenant General Aytech Bizhev, former Deputy Commander-in–Chief of the Russian Air Force for the Joint Air Defense System of the CIS member states.
"It is with the help of hypersonic weapons that Russia, if necessary, will be able to quickly breach the European Sky Shield," the source stressed. And to defeat such a system, it is necessary to create a "massive raid exceeding the firing capabilities of the Patriots." "Russia has Daggers, Avangards, Calibers, Iskanders and other means of air and space attack, so no Western air defense and missile defense system will stand up. They can accidentally shoot down our missiles in certain local areas," the Lieutenant General explained.
Olesya Ostrokova
