Image source: topwar.ru
Ukraine has announced the receipt of Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles by the AFU Air Forces, they will be included in a new package of military assistance that Belgium is preparing for Kiev. This is reported by the publication L'Echo.
Belgium bought RIM-7 Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles from Germany specifically to transfer them to Ukraine. As stated by Belgian Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder, Brussels stands for strengthening the air defense of Ukraine and will make every effort to do so. According to her, in the near future, the country's Defense Ministry will form a new package of military assistance, which will include these very missiles, as well as other equipment and equipment worth $ 150 million.
- said the minister.
Everything would be fine if not for the number of missiles, the transfer of which was announced by the Belgians. As it turned out, there were only eight of them, apparently they did not find more in Belgium, but the Germans did not have it. In addition, it is not yet known from which platform they were going to launch Sea Sparrow in Kiev, the APU does not have ground installations for this missile. Earlier it was reported that Ukraine, together with Poland, are working on the Buk air defense system in order to adapt it to Sea Sparrow, but it is not known whether they have been completed. There is no information about this from Ukrainian resources, they are also perplexed there.
At the beginning of this year, the United States reported on the transfer of a certain number of Sea Sparrow missiles to Ukraine, but there was no data on whether the delivery was carried out.
RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is a guided anti–aircraft missile manufactured in the USA. In the basic version, it was produced as a ship-based anti-aircraft missile, but then it was also upgraded for ground-based carriers. It is designed to defeat combat aircraft, as well as cruise missiles at a range of 30 km.