US pushes allies to assemble patchwork air defenses for Ukraine

SpaceWar.com reports: “The United States is pressing allies to hastily build for Ukraine a patchwork air defense network using NATO-compatible equipment — some ultra-modern, others older — to protect strategic targets from Russian strikes.

The effort was given added urgency after Moscow pummeled Ukraine with missiles this week, damaging energy facilities nationwide and leaving at least 20 people dead.

‘What the (Ukrainian) leadership described that they needed yesterday most was air defense capability,’ US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Brussels on Thursday, a day after a meeting of 50 allied countries who coordinate their military support for Kyiv.

In order to protect Ukraine from Russia’s varied threats, however, it will be necessary to build air defenses made up of multiple layers, says the top US military officer, General Mark Milley.

‘What you’re looking at, really, is short-range, low-altitude systems, then medium-range, medium-altitude, and then long-range and high-altitude systems,’ he said Wednesday in Brussels.

These three levels will protect major cities and key infrastructure in Ukraine from Russian ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones…”

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