U.S. to purchase air defense systems for Ukraine – CNN

This week the US plans to announce its purchase of an advanced, medium-to-long range surface-to-air missile defense system for Ukraine.

CNN reported about this.

Recently, President Joe Biden announced that the US would provide Ukraine with “more advanced rocket systems and munitions”.

In response to requests by Ukrainian forces, other military assistance is also likely to be announced this week, says CNN source.

The new military aid package will include additional artillery ammunition and counter-battery radars among other things.

Earlier, Ukrainian officials also asked for the transfer of advanced NASAMS air defense systems.

Back in April, the anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that they were trying to replace the obsolete Soviet-made Buk-M1 SAM with the advanced NASAMS systems. This was stated in a video message on the official social media page of the Ukrainian Air Force Command.

In late March, President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Norway to provide the NASAMS surface-to-air missile system and Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

NASAMS systems are designed by a consortium of the American corporation Raytheon Technologies and the Norwegian group Kongsberg. The system includes launchers and Raytheon AN / MPQ-64F1 Sentinel radars from the Raytheon and Kongsberg consortium.

Raytheon is responsible for supplying its AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles for this system, and Kongsberg supplies the launchers.

Each mobile launcher has six containers with anti-aircraft missiles. NASAMS system is either in service or about to be delivered to 12 countries.

The firing range of the NASAMS II model using AIM-120C AMRAAM missiles is up to 25 km, and the altitude range is up to 14-15 km.