Germany has announced that it will supply Ukraine with its newest air defense system. This may see Ukrainians avoid massive bombing by Russian bombers as Russia’s wider war against Ukraine enters its bloody fourth month.
But who how long can the delivery take.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that his government would donate a batch of IRIS-T SL missile launchers to Kiev. Scholz described the IRIS-T SL as “the ultimate fashionable air defense formula for Germany. “
An IRIS-T SL battery includes several eight-round launchers plus a command post and radar, all installed on heavy trucks. The Ukrainian government ordered 10 of the launchers, German media reported. This is enough for one battery or several.
Diehl BGT Defense manufactures the IRIS-T SL system. Each missile, to mention launchers and other parts, sells for about a million dollars.
There are other styles of IRIS-T SL. A short diversity edition that fires missiles up to 8 miles. A style of medium diversity with a diversity of 25 miles. A new, longer diversity edition is also being developed. Ukraine needs the average style.
The desire is obvious. The Ukrainian armed forces began the war with vital air defenses inherited from the Soviet era. But munitions are limited and Russian attacks have destroyed dozens of launchers and radars.
Foreign donations of short-range portable surface-to-air missiles helped the Ukrainians continue to launch Russian helicopters and fighter jets. 300 battery.
The S-three hundred is the backbone of Ukraine’s long-range air defense. Before the war, the army and air force deployed about three hundred S-three hundred launchers in about a hundred batteries. An S-three hundred launchers can launch a missile up to 125 miles, depending on the model.
After almost a hundred days of bombing, the Russians destroyed about twenty original Ukrainian S-300 launchers.
Kyiv still has enough longer-range air defenses to prevent its deep airspace from flying over Russian aircraft. Moscow’s helicopters and planes remained close to the front lines. of kilometers away.
But those missiles are expensive and Russian industry, which relies on Western-made electronics that is now under sanction, can’t upgrade them smoothly. The Kremlin is obviously interested in deploying bombers for direct attacks with reasonably serious bombs.
Note that at the height of fighting in mid-April at the Russian-occupied commercial Azovstal in Mariupol, southern Ukraine, the Russian Air Force pulled out Tu-22M rotary-wing bombers for devastating carpet bombing.
Azovstal is a rare opportunity for giant heavy bombers. As Mariupol is located deep in the Territory under Russian control, Ukrainian S-300s may not easily target the Tu-22M, as they were flying slowly and flat over the commercial site.
On the other hand, flying bombers over, say, Kharkiv or Odessa, where the Ukrainians and their air defenses are intact, would be air suicide. But that can replace it if Ukraine runs out of S-300s.
Hence the urgency of the IRIS-T SL operation. Ukraine will have to constantly rebuild its air defenses or threaten Russia with the expansion of its bombing campaign.
The challenge for Kyiv is that the IRIS-T SL donated through Germany comes from the manufacturer. After all, it is a completely new system, and the German army does not have many lies.
It is unclear how temporarily Diehl might be to bring together the Ukrainian IRIS-T SL systems. Weeks?Month? If there is one explanation for why Ukrainians care, it is that Germany has been in no hurry to send the other primary weapons it promised to protect Ukraine.
And time is of the essence.