Ukraine has received its first anti-aircraft defense system delivered by Germany, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov announced in a tweet published on Tuesday evening, October 11.
“A new era of air defense has begunin Ukraine, welcomed the minister. “Germany’s Iris-Ts are already here. American NASAMS arrive“. “This is just the beginning», continues Oleksiï Reznikov, «and we need more. No doubt that Russia is a terrorist state. There is a moral imperative to protect the skies of Ukraine in order to save our people“.
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Upcoming US missiles
In June, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised kyiv the delivery of Iris-T systems capable, according to him, of protecting a large city against air raids. On Monday, as a rain of Russian missiles fell on Ukraine, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht assured that the first of this equipment would be provided to kyiv “in the next few daysand three more next year.
The Iris-T system has a shield range of 20 kilometers in height and 40 kilometers in width. The German army itself has missiles of the Iris-T type, but not the complete surface-to-air system. It fires the missiles from Tornado or Eurofighter planes.
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The United States has promised NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems: two for delivery in the coming weeks or months and six others as part of longer-term aid. This NASAMS surface-to-air missile system is manufactured by the American Raytheon and the Norwegian group Kongsberg.
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