Left just two weeks
Ukraine is running so low on ammunition that it will run out of air defence missiles to defend its cities by the end of the month, according to reports.
Reports indicate severe shortages as political debate over US military aid intensifies amid escalating Russian attacks
www.telegraph.co.uk
This is where Europe has to step up until USA passes their next batch of aid.
The following are used to intercept cruise missiles.
- Germany
, Greece
, Poland
, Romania
, Spain
, Sweden
and the Netherlands
all operate Patriot air defense systems featuring PAC 2 and PAC 3 missiles. Each of those countries can "dig deep" to send some extra missiles to Ukraine.
- Germany
, Greece
, Sweden
, Italy
and Spain
all use IRIS-T missiles that Ukraine needs for their SLS and SLM air defense systems
- France
and Italy
both use Aster 30 missiles for SAMP-T air defense systems that they've sent to Ukraine.
- Belgium
, Canada
, Czech Republic
, Finland
, Greece
, Italy
, The Netherlands
, Norway
, Poland
, Portugal
, Romania
, Sweden
and Turkey
all use AIM-9 sidewinder variants that Ukraine needs for their NASAMS air defense systems.
- Belgium
, Canada
, Denmark
, Czech Republic
, Germany
, Finland
, Greece
, Italy
, The Netherlands
, Portugal
, Norway
, Poland
, Romania
, Spain
, Turkey
, United Kingdom
and Sweden
all use AIM-120 AMRAAM variants that Ukraine needs for their NASAMS air defense systems.
- United Kingdom
uses the ASRAAM missile that Ukraine launches from the launch vehicles that Britain supplied Ukraine earlier this year.
There are THOUSANDS of viable interceptors across Europe, it's simply about Europe having the will power to donate large quantities of them (say 500 of mixed variants) to keep air defense against cruise missiles and some balistic missiles, strong.
As we speak, Raytheon is maxing out it's production lines for AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-9X interceptors. They are now building 1200 AMRAAM and 2500 Sidewinders per year, many of which they will export to European allies. There is no reason that a healthy number of those missiles capable of intercepting Russian cruise missiles, can't go to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, 550 Patriot PAC-3 missiles are built each year, while 200+ PAC 2 missiles are built in Germany and hundreds more are built under license in Japan. Many of those missiles could be sent to Ukraine as well, to restock their Patriot systems.