US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said that NASAMS systems are expected to be delivered to Ukraine in early November.
At a briefing on 27 October, the Pentagon chief said that defenders achieve success on the battlefield thanks to high-precision GMLRS missile systems.
“The Ukrainians can service just about every target that they want to service using the GMLRS missiles that they've been employing. And so they have what they need to be successful, they're putting it to good use,” Austin said, noting that this is exactly why the US support will continue.
However, air defence systems are what Ukrainians need most of all now. After the meeting of the Contact Group on Defence of Ukraine in the Ramstein format, some countries responded to these needs and began to provide opportunities for their implementation. Austin noted that the first to provide air defence systems to the Ukrainians was Spain, which provided HAWK. Now the defenders of Ukraine have to learn to work with these systems, as well as with the American NASAMS.
“We have been pressing hard to get them [the Ukrainians] a NASAMS capability and we expect that early next month, we'll be able to get the capability and train troops,” Lloyd Austin said.
NASAMS is a development of Norwegian and American companies. The complex was developed to replace the MIM-23 Hawk, which was in service with the Norwegian Armed Forces. It is an advanced surface-to-air system.
The launcher consists of six missiles. Each mobile launcher has six containers with anti-aircraft missiles, writes "Militarnyy".
The firing range of the anti-aircraft system in the NASAMS II configuration using AIM-120C AMRAAM missiles is up to 25 km and the height - up to 14-15 km. The first such systems in Ukraine were expected in mid-October.