Recently, we covered how the Armed Forces of Ukraine could have received Osa-AKM air defense missiles from Jordan, as indicated by the desert-style camouflage of the missile containers seen in Ukraine. Such news no longer cause an uproar like before since receiving various weapons from the least expected countries has almost become commonplace.
Against this background, we can find fresh insight by recalling how exactly started the supplies of anti-aircraft missile systems to the Ukrainian Armed Forces from allies in 2022, at the beginning of the full-scale war against the russian federation. Generally accepted is to start the countdown from the delivery of the S-300 SAMs from Slovakia in April 2022. But perhaps it would be more correct to set the starting point from a more "exotic" event.
Read more: Could Jordan Provide Ukraine With Surface-To-Air Missiles to the Soviet Osa-AKM
In late March 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States had likely transferred to Ukraine some Soviet-era air defense systems taken from the stocks of the American military. Osa-AKM missile systems were among them. But in fact, the US had a much broader variety of Soviet-type air defense equipment, including Strela-10 and Tor short-range missile systems, even Buk medium-range and S-300 long-range systems.
Where exactly the Americans got such weapons, the US military keeps secret. All that's known is, these Soviet-era air defense systems were obtained under the FME program of studying foreign-made weapons, and the purpose of this program is precisely to ensure that in case it faces any of these technologies in real battle, the US Army would know about the enemy's weapons. There is a hypothesis on a thin line with speculation that the US military could have purchased the S-300 for the study from belarus.
An article from The Drive adds that all the Soviet-type surface-to-air systems formally belong to the US Air Force, all gathered within the 547th Intelligence Squadron which was nicknamed a Petting Zoo for the diversity of equipment present there.
In this story, we can only put down the record that a transfer of some Osa-AKM systems might have taken place, according to the media. And here there is a chance some other "pets" from this "zoo" were or will be handed over to Ukraine at some point.
The main point to take note of is how big of a path Ukraine has walked since the "diplomatic wars" for every piece of equipment up till the first Patriot systems already being in service with the Ukrainian forces.
Read more: One Division of the Patriot Air Defense System Went On Duty in Ukraine
