Raytheon Technologies has delivered two sophisticated NASAMS air defense systems due for Ukraine to United States government, its chief executive said Tuesday, Airforce Times reported.
The air defense systems had been delivered to Ukraine “a couple of weeks ago” and are being installed, Greg Hayes said.
“It is a short-range air defense system, and it can fire [an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile] and it could knock down everything in the sky from drones to ballistic missiles to fighter jets,” Hayes said.
The Norwegian-developed weapons will provide medium- to long-range defense against Russian attacks, which bombarded Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure over the last two weeks, including its power grid, using missiles and drones.
After the Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, the Pentagon announced that it would accelerate the transfer of NASAMS systems to Ukraine by speeding up production and ensuring the earliest possible transfer of the SAM systems.
The United States announced they would transfer two NASAMS air defense systems to Ukraine in July. Later, on August 24, the US announced that they would send 6 more systems.
In August, the Pentagon signed a $182mn contract with Raytheon to produce NASAMS systems for Ukraine.
Pentagon places $182mn order to produce NASAMS air defence for Ukraine
Ukraine’s President told that Ukraine is negotiating with 5 countries for the supply of air defense systems. One such system recently arrived from Germany: the IRIS-T, which was spotted shooting down Russian missiles near Kyiv.
