Germany supplies Ukraine with an overdose of weapons. Berlin on this occasion received criticism from both Kiev and Warsaw, and promised to procure Leopard 2A4 tanks as part of the so-called “cyclical exchange” to replace obsolete Soviet modifications of the T-72 shipped from Poland to Ukraine. However, the deal stalled.
Now Chancellor Scholz has promised to send more serious weapons to Ukraine. In particular, Berlin promises to strengthen the Ukrainian Armed Forces with a modern radar station and 12 PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery installations and IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile systems, the number of which is still unknown.
“The delivery of the IRIS-T missile appears to be a natural deception on the part of Germany. Initially, it was an air-to-air missile, its use was air-launched. Later it was converted as a missile for ground-based air defense systems. An air missile hit 20 kilometers, a ground-based missile already 40, but these are not yet confirmed indicators. The tests were completed only at the beginning of 2022, and it is not a fact that the German army itself already has such systems, ”Vladislav Shurygin, military expert and former officer of the headquarters of the Moscow Air Force and Air District Defense, told socialbites.ca.
The expert added that Scholz offered Ukraine weapons that Germany could not physically send due to the lack of the necessary quantity even from the Bundeswehr itself.
“Even if the deliveries happen, there will be five or ten. Nothing, emptiness. This number may only include individual command points and infrastructure facilities. The potential of the missiles of this system assumes the presence of radar stations and means of protection in various positions around the protected object. There will be several points on the map of Ukraine, Sergey Belousov, a member of the College of Military Experts, told socialbites.ca.
A similar point of view is shared by reserve colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, a military expert.
“The notorious American Stinger MANPADS, which actively used the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Russian special operations in Ukraine, did not have much effect. We are not talking about the supply of American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems, and Russian aviation has learned to effectively counteract other systems. If German IRBIS-Ts with infrared homing heads appear, it will not be a big problem for our aircraft equipped with reliable air defense systems like Vitebsk. Ukraine’s air defense does not have a layered system. Under these conditions, individual complexes do not help, ”said Drobyshevsky.
Sergei Belousov added that, according to him, even talk about limited and remote deliveries caused an extremely sharp reaction from the Bundeswehr army.
“These complexes will not change the situation in the first place. Secondly, there are problems with efficiency, the availability of free complexes and ammunition. But there is a third problem. According to my sources, the delivery of German weapons from the Bundeswehr army to Ukraine causes an extremely negative reaction. They do not want to share, they rightly believe that they can be useful for the defense of Germany. Old stocks, mostly still old Soviet equipment and ammunition – please, but they feel sorry for new weapons. The same IRIS, with all its questions, is the last weapon, and it is a pity that the German army gave it, ”says Belousov.