US to Transfer Anti-Air Systems from the Gulf to Ukraine

According to the CEO of Raytheon Technologies, the U.S. is working with Middle Eastern countries to move several of their anti-air defense systems to Ukraine.

The goal is to send National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems to Ukraine in the next three to six months, CEO Greg Hayes said in an interview. The U.S. would then backfill those systems with new NASAMS in the Middle East over the next 24 months.

It could take two years to replace them!

This is after Ukraine hit Poland with a missile, killing a Polish farmer and a Polish salesman. They blamed Russia but were quickly found out.

We are spending $1.2 billion on these medium-range anti-air missiles.

Ukrainian officials have spent months lobbying the U.S. to send NASAMS to counter Russian rocket attacks. The systems have a longer range than other air defense equipment Western countries have sent to Ukraine. The first two arrived in early November, and the U.S. promises more by 2025 since they plan to keep this war going indefinitely.

According to Defense Security Cooperation Agency records, Raytheon declined to name the Middle Eastern countries that would send the anti-air system, but purchasers in the region are Oman and Qatar.

Training on these anti-air systems takes six months, but only 60 Ukrainians were trained in 60 days. We could conceivably have inadequately trained people operating these missiles.

The US army awarded a $1.2 billion contract to Raytheon for six NASAMS for Ukraine, which is part of the fifth Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package with a total value of $2.98 billion. Raytheon is also waiting in the wings to approve a $1 billion deal to provide Qatar with anti-drone systems.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February, the US congress has approved $65.9 billion in Ukraine assistance through three separate supplemental funding packages.

Biden recently asked congress for an additional $38 billion in Ukraine aid.

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