by DAVID AXE
Ukraine needs 100 long-range air-defense missiles every month to sustain any kind of meaningful defense against Russian ballistic missiles.
The most obvious solution is for Ukraine to get 100 missiles a month for its eight Patriot batteries. But that’s looking unlikely.
Equally unlikely: a swift ramp-up in production of Aster missiles for Ukraine’s two SAMP/T batteries.
That leaves just one viable option for near-term defense of Ukrainian cities. The FP-7X, a mostly Ukrainian missile.
But there’s a problem. Yes, the $600,000 FP-7X, produced by Kyiv firm Fire Point under the multinational Freyja initiative, is mostly Ukrainian. But it does include an infrared seeker from German firm Diehl and is cued and guided by a planned network of mostly European-made radars. While Fire Point is stockpiling missiles, these missiles still lack their European parts.
To be clear, Russia launches more than 100 ballistic missiles a month at Ukrainian cities. It launched around a hundred in just the last two weeks of October. If the Russians tap stockpiles and sustain high-rate production of key munitions including the Iskander, they could lob a staggering 600 ballistic missiles a month at Ukraine over the coming winter, missile expert Fabian Hoffmann concluded.
