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NASAMS Air Defense System From Canada: How Long Should Ukraine Wait For It

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NASAMS missile launch / Illustrative photo from open sources
NASAMS missile launch / Illustrative photo from open sources

The "Canadian" NASAMS ground-based air defense system will become the ninth in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Canada announced the purchase of the NASAMS air defense system for Ukraine. This statement was made by the Minister of National Defense of Canada, Anita Anand, following a conversation with the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov.

At the same time, the main issue in this situation is the time it will take for this air defense system to be put on combat duty. The key to answering this question is that NASAMS was ordered from the US. Canada has no own NASAMS systems, as well as any of full-fledged anti-aircraft missile system in service (according to Military Balance).

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NASAMS Air Defense System From Canada: How Long Should Ukraine Wait For It, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
Illustrative photo from open sources

And all issues of air defense in Canada are entrusted to fighter aviation: 96 units of F/A-18, which are to be replaced by 88 units of F-35 by 2034, which is worth approximately 14 billion dollars. It is also necessary to mention the participation of the USAF in the defense of Canada within the framework of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

In this case, it is obvious that everything depends on the technological cycles of NASAMS manufacturing by Raytheon and Kongsberg. Ukraine has already received two NASAMS air defense systems, which were provided within the framework of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), six more are to be produced over the next few years.

NASAMS Air Defense System From Canada: How Long Should Ukraine Wait For It, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
Illustrative photo from open sources

Thus, the ninth "Canadian" NASAMS can only be put in the queue after those surface-to-air missile systems, which are currently being manufactured, and the last of them should be ready, according to the concluded contract of the US government with Raytheon, by the end of the summer of 2025.

But the volume of the order for Ukraine alone is quite significant for nine SAMs gives hope that production will be accelerated and scaled up to meet demand, taking into account export contracts by Lithuania and Hungary, which will spend 1 billion dollars on them, as well as other potential contracts aiming to defend against a massive cruise missile strike.

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