“NASAMS will not be able to protect Kiev but is a threat to our aviation”

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Kiev is expected to purchase Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems from the United States. This was demanded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife, who spoke in the US Congress on July 20 about “the right to defend your home and wake up alive in this house”.

As a result, US congressmen approved the delivery of NASAMS systems, whose missiles protect the airspace over the White House and Pentagon.

The development of the NASAMS complex was carried out by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace in partnership with the American company Raytheon. The first generation of these systems was commissioned in 1998. Such complexes are in service with both the Norwegian and US armies, as well as Spain, the Netherlands, Finland and Latvia.

Spain has installed a battery from NASAMS systems at the US Air Force base in Lielvarde, Latvia – all in service, clear skies.

NASAMS is a mobile anti-aircraft missile system designed to deal with maneuvering aerodynamic targets at low and medium altitudes, which can be understood as high-speed aircraft, fighter and attack aircraft, and cruise missiles. This air defense system, whose range does not exceed 180 km. Converted air-to-air missiles AIM-9 Sidewinder and IRIS-T SLS and long-range AIM-120 AMRAAM-ER are used. They have a speed of 1020 meters per second.

Ukraine has asked the United States to provide them with air defense systems to protect their decision-making centers from possible Russian missile attacks. First of all, hypersonic Kinzhals and Alexanders are feared in the Ukrainian capital.

“The sky of the Ukrainian capital is covered with about twenty air defense systems, including the S-300PS, which is part of the 96th Kyiv anti-aircraft missile brigade,” military expert reserve colonel Alexei Zhuravlev told Gazeta.ru. – Of course, the additions will not interfere, but their effectiveness in countering Russian missiles, which the Armed Forces of Ukraine is so afraid of, seems rather dubious. The American missile cannot intercept the Kinzhal hypersonic missile, which flies at 4080 meters per second, and the Russian Caliber, which accelerates to 2600 meters per second in the final stage, does not exist.

The specialist also doubted the possibility of combining two NASAMS batteries in a single data exchange network with data from the stations of the radio engineering brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, located near Kyiv. In the United States, NASAMS complexes use the TADIL network. Tactical command is a communication, navigation and identification system that supports data exchange between aircraft, ships and ground units. There is no such thing in Ukraine.

One of the features of the complex is the ability to turn off the radar and work almost unnoticed. With completely disabled radars, the combat use radius is limited to a range of 25-40 km.

NASAMS complexes pose a potential danger to Russian combat and transport aviation, which may be in the affected area of ​​​​their missiles.

“Kyiv will not protect any decision-making center with NASAMS complexes,” military expert Vladislav Shurygin told socialbites.ca. – They will immediately be sent to the front, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces lack air defense systems. This will already pose a great threat to our aviation. Accordingly, it will be necessary to change air tactics, launch missile attacks from a greater distance than the range of these systems. Well, and by disabling the batteries compactly located in combat positions, give them precise hits. NASAMS has a fairly high mobility and deployment and folding time in the combat position, so this will be a difficult task. NASAMS will not be able to protect Kiev, but it is a threat to our aviation.”

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