Ukraine receives NASAMS and Aspide anti-aircraft missile systems

The Minister of Defence of Ukraine expressed gratitude to Norway, Spain and the United States for the supplies of new weapons without specifying exactly how many complexes arrived.

NASAMS and Aspide anti-aircraft missile systems have arrived in Ukraine, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.

"These weapons will significantly strengthen the Ukrainian army and make our skies safer,” Reznikov tweeted.

The minister did not specify exactly how many complexes were delivered to the country. He thanked Norway, Spain and the US for the supplies.

• NASAMS is a short and medium-range air defence system for combating manoeuvring aerodynamic targets at low and medium altitudes. The system is capable of striking targets at a distance from 20 to 180 km and an altitude of up to 21 km with a maximum speed of 1000 m/s. The system is developed by Norwegian company Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace and USA's Raytheon.
• Aspide systems are designed to protect strategic facilities, such as industrial enterprises, airfields or seaports. They can be used as part of a layered air defense system to exchange data with other types of air defense systems. Aspide missiles were designed by Selenia, Italy. In the 1980s, Spain integrated them into the Skyguard complex, called Toledo or Spada.

The United States has been supplying weapons to Ukraine since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine. In July, the Pentagon delivered HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In August it signed a contract to purchase NASAMS complexes worth more than $182.2 million under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.