Italy has not made an official decision regarding the supply of its anti-aircraft missile system to Ukraine yet, and Washington is actively pressuring Rome to speed up the resolution of this issue, La Repubblica reports.
It is currently known that the American national security adviser Jake Sullivan had a telephone conversation with Francesco Talo, the diplomatic adviser to the head of the Italian Council of Ministers Giorgia Meloni, and the US actively insisted that Italy provide the necessary systems for Ukraine as soon as possible. The SAMP/T anti-aircraft missile system was also mentioned among those defensive systems too.
Read more: The U.S. Announced New Aid Package of Weapons for Ukraine: What it Contains
The fact is that the decision to supply the equipment as part of the sixth package of defense assistance from Italy has not yet been made, although it is currently unofficially known about Italy's plans (together with France) to supply this air defense system.
As noted in the La Repubblica publication, although this decision should be made already at the beginning of this year, it needs "further preparatory work." Details on how quickly this decision might be made have not been released.
The SAMP/T air defense system is a system that Ukraine really needs to "close" the sky from russian missiles as best as possible, and it is currently one of the best solutions that Europe can give to Ukraine.
The SAMP/T anti-aircraft missile complex can destroy aircraft at a distance of more than 100 km, ballistic targets - up to 30-35 km at an altitude of up to 25 km. The mass of the missile warhead is 15-20 kg. One of the advantages of this air defense system is multi-channel - it can fire at up to 16 targets at the same time.
Defense Express reported earlier, that US Media Told What Purpose Ukraine Need Sea Sparrow Missiles For.
Read more: Ukraine’s Buk SAM Will Receive RIM-7 Sea Sparrow Missiles, Which Solves the Missile Shortage Problem
