US planning to send several NASAMS air-defence systems stationed in Middle East to Ukraine

The US and its allies are in talks with unspecified Middle Eastern countries regarding a potential redeployment of some NASAMS middle-range air-defence systems from their territories to Ukraine, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said in an interview with Politico.

“There are NASAMS deployed across the Middle East, and some of our NATO allies and we [the U.S.] are actually working with a couple of Middle Eastern countries that currently employ NASAMS and trying to direct those back up to Ukraine,” Hayes noted.

According to him, the NASAMS systems are expected to be delivered to Ukraine in 3-6 months, while the US will deploy new ones to the Middle Eastern countries within 2 years. Hayes did not disclose which countries are involved in the decision-making. According to Politico, Oman and Qatar purchased NASAMS systems.

It is quicker to redeploy the systems to Ukraine than to produce them in the US which takes over 2 years due to the time required to buy electronic components and missile engines, Hayes adds.

On 1 December, the US inked a $1.2-billion deal with Raytheon to buy NASAMS for Ukraine. Earlier, Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder said that the US is planning to supply 6 additional NASAMS missile defence systems to Ukraine within the next few years.

On 26 October, the news emerged that the US had sent the first 2 NASAMS systems to Ukraine. On 7 November, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that the systems had arrived in the country. In total, 8 such systems are planned to be sent to Ukraine.