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| Ukraine Again Asks to Send Israel's Iron Dome |
Kiev - Ukraine has again applied to Israel for its Iron Dome missile defense system after a massive Russian attack recently. The request was made while Kiev was awaiting delivery of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) from the United States.
On Wednesday, Axios obtained a letter that the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel sent to the Israeli Foreign Ministry requesting Iron Dome technology. "Ukraine is very interested in acquiring Israeli defense systems (in the shortest possible terms), in particular: Iron Beam, Barak-8, Patriot, Iron Dome, David's Sling, Arrow Interceptor and Israeli support in training for Ukrainian operators," the letter reads.
In addition to the letter, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko recently made a similar comment during an interview with the Washington Post. “Israel has great experience with air defense and Iron Dome, and we need the exact same system in our city,” Klitschko said. "We've been talking to them for a long time about it. Those discussions haven't worked out yet."
NASAMS was developed by Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Kongsberg. "NASAMS provides air defenses with advanced, customizable defense systems that can maximize their ability to identify, strike, and destroy current and developing enemy aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and emerging cruise missile threats," Raytheon said.
On the other hand, Israel's Iron Dome technology was developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. "Iron Dome is a highly mobile dual mission system that is constantly evolving and has grown over the years into a family of systems," the company said. Rafael added that Iron Dome provides solutions to combat short-range threats as well as rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) threats, aircraft, helicopters, UAVs, PGMs and cruise missiles.
Speaking with Newsweek on Wednesday, Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said NASAMS and Iron Dome are very capable systems. "NASAMS will be a more capable system," Karako told Newsweek, which was launched Thursday (20/10/2022). "It's a bit more geared towards cruise missile defense issues, whereas Iron Dome will be a bit more at the lower end, still very capable, for a different problem."
Despite the recent appeal for the Iron Dome, Karako also noted that Ukraine wants capacity in terms of air defense systems. "They want whatever air defense they can get their hands on," Karako said. "We sent them two NASAMS. It's more of a capacity issue than a capability.