Ukraine's diplomatic effort has been focused on acquiring air defenses for the country to protect against russian missile strikes. Although the need for advanced anti-missile systems is estimated at 7 to 25 fire units, currently, the negotiations are concerning only two Patriots and one SAMP/T surface-to-air missile systems, said Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba.
Overall, the European segment of NATO has about 30 Patriot batteries in operation (and 5 more planned for deployment), and therefore it's problematic for Europe to hand over 23% to 83% of the entire fleet. On the other hand, two more Patriots can be assembled from components provided by different donors, like when the Netherlands sent additional launchers to the German-donated battery. This scenario looks much more realistic, especially considering the US still hasn't unblocked military aid to Ukraine.
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In this situation, the minister mentioning negotiations regarding another SAMP/T is extremely interesting, since the SAM in question is the one that Ukraine has gotten only once, from France and Italy. Kyiv had pushed for this provision SAMP/T since October 2022, until the system's official arrival in Ukraine in the summer of 2023. Transferring another one would be significant progress, considering the scarcity of this advanced long-range anti-missile weapon.
For a brief reminder, SAMP/T is often referred to as the European analog of the American Patriot as both employ the hit-to-kill technology for interception of ballistic missiles. The one that is missing in the russian-made peer called S-400. However, the European anti-missile system, developed by Eurosam, never gained the same popularity as the Patriot, with its only customer outside Europe being Singapore.
As of 2021, France had 10 SAMP/T systems (fire units), which were divided into five squadrons, two systems per squadron. The French configuration of the system is 6 launchers of 8 missiles each, then one radar, one command post, and support vehicles. In Italy, there were 6 SAMP/T systems (fire units), grouped up into batteries. The Italian composition of the system is smaller: four launchers per fire unit.
Thus, having handed one fire unit over to Ukraine, only 15 SAMP/T systems are left in Europe, or minus 6% of the available systems of this class. Coincidentally, transferring two Patriots out of 30 would result in the same donation of 6% of those present in Europe.
On a reference note, SAMP/T is a ground-based mobile system that employs the power of Aster 30 missiles capable of intercepting non-ballistic targets at ranges over 100 km, or ballistic threats within an estimated range of 30-35 km, although not disclosed officially.
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