France, Italy share plans to send SAMP-T air defence missile systems to Kyiv in coming spring

French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu has announced that Paris and Rome are planning to supply SAMP-T, a long-range air defence missile system, to Ukraine in the coming spring.

According to Ukrainian military expert Oleh Zhdanov these systems are similar to US Patriots. The maximum range of SAMP-T is 200 km. “One system can fully cover a city like Kharkiv or Kyiv,” Zhdanov noted.

Reuters earlier reported that SAMP-T (Mamba) can track dozens of targets and intercept ten at once. It is the only European system that can down ballistic missiles.