A mix of old and new Western weapons must stop Russian missile rain

The West has labeled Russia’s latest rocket attacks on Ukraine as “barbaric”. But building an effective Ukrainian air defense was hardly a priority until recently.

The Ukrainian battlefield has been a testing ground for Western weapons for eight months. The latest weapon system to make an appearance is aptly named: Avenger. With this American anti-aircraft system, eight missiles can be fired at a rapid pace with a maximum range of eight kilometers. It must neutralize the threat of missiles and drones fired by Russia.

The Avenger, one of the many missile systems in the Western arsenal, must, among other things, put an end to the futile attempts by Ukrainian soldiers to shoot down the low-flying Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones with their Kalashnikovs. A big advantage of the mobile air defense system is that it fires the Stinger missile. That is one of the most effective anti-aircraft missiles in the US against low-flying targets.

But the Avenger, which could have been put to good use against the 100 missiles fired by Russia on Tuesday, is not yet in Ukraine. The weapon is part of a new US military aid package worth $400 million. When the Avenger arrives on the battlefield, Washington does not want to say. It is one of the air defense systems that the US and Europe have recently started sending to Ukraine.

Western aid does not come quickly. Only a handful of the promised missile launchers are operational, despite the devastating Russian attacks. The Ukrainian army has been forced to fire obsolete Russian-made missiles to stop the attacks; the missile that hit Przewodów in eastern Poland on Tuesday was very likely fired by Ukrainian air defenses, according to NATO – Polish president Duda spoke of an unfortunate incident.

High priority

The large-scale Russian missile attacks on infrastructure in October finally made the West realize that combating them must be given high priority. Kyiv had been pressing for months for the delivery of modern Western weapons, in particular to stop the Russian cruise missiles. In the summer, the US and Germany decided to take action, but the actual delivery of the weapon systems they promised would then take months.

To make matters worse, Moscow then also introduced the Shaheds to the battlefield. A few American and German missile systems are now operational, as well as the Aspide missile system supplied by Spain. Spain is also sending six Hawk batteries, a Vietnam-era missile system. They should soon be supplemented with the Avenger.

All these missile systems should enable the Ukrainians to intercept Russian cruise missiles (such as the Kalibr) and kamikaze drones at a distance of four to approximately fifty kilometers. “We are creating a network of air defense systems with weapons that all have different ranges,” said Pentagon spokesman Sabrina Singh. “Each weapon makes its own contribution on the battlefield, allowing Ukraine to be effective.”

Simple missile shield

In fact, this creates a very simple anti-missile shield, though it bears no resemblance to the state-of-the-art and highly elaborate missile shield that Israel and the US have built to protect themselves against the threat of missiles. The Israeli system, Iron Dome, has proven very effective in recent years against the short-range missiles that Hamas has been firing en masse from Gaza.

The US also has a missile defense system, the National Missile Defense (NMD) system, to protect America and Europe from the threat of North Korean and Iranian intermediate and long-range missiles. Both the Israeli and the US missile defense system consist of an extensive and integrated network of radars and warning systems to detect enemy missiles in time and to guide defense missiles to their target.

Ukraine would have preferred to receive the Iron Dome system. However, Israel does not feel that way, because that country does not want to offend the Russians. Numerous requests from Ukraine to the US to supply the Patriot, the world’s most famous air defense system – which proved itself during the Gulf War, among other things – were also refused. This is partly because Washington is hesitant about the Russian response, and the Patriot also requires extensive and long training of Ukrainian soldiers.

Mix of old and new

With a mix of highly advanced missile systems and old weapons from the Cold War, Kyiv and the West hope to soon be able to combat the Russian threat from the air more effectively.

One of those modern weapons is Nasams, which the US developed together with Norway. This allows missiles and drones to be bombarded up to a distance of fifty kilometers. Nasam’s great strength is that it fires the Amraam, one of the most effective western missiles for aerial combat.

Ukraine triumphantly announced last week that the first two of a total of eight Nasams from the US had arrived. “These weapons will make our skies safer,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted. The German air defense system Iris-T, supplied by Germany, is also already active. It can fire eight missiles to intercept the Russian weapons up to a distance of forty kilometers.

Ukraine has been using this missile system since last month, but it is still unclear how effective Iris-T – of which Kyiv is getting four – is so far in fighting Russia. The lightning-fast Aspide missile, which flies at four times the speed of sound, and Avenger are also fairly modern weapons. The Aspide missile ranges up to 25 kilometers.

Hawk missiles

The old Hawk missile, which has never been used in a war by the US, can now also prove itself. This American missile, predecessor of the Patriot, dates from the fifties. Spain has sent four launchers and the US will provide the missiles. Kyiv does not have to worry about the delivery of enough Hawk missiles: the US still has a large part of the estimated 40,000 units in its warehouses.

Will this additional Western aid help? Some of these weapons have not yet proven themselves in a war. And is such a small number of launch systems sufficient? The US and Europe hope that their high-tech missiles will again make a difference, as they have done in the past eight months.

According to Kyiv, that is already the case. The Ukrainian high command on Tuesday claimed to have downed 73 of an estimated 100 missiles fired by Russia, in large part thanks to Western anti-aircraft systems received. For example, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, the Nasams missiles would have destroyed all Russian missiles attacked so far.