Power outages have been going on for days in large parts of Ukraine. The country’s infrastructure was badly damaged by Russian drone attacks. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky (44) 30 percent of the power plants have been destroyed. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air defenses are under great pressure. She feels unable to effectively repel the swarms of drones.
Apparently Ukraine’s air defenses are not doing badly against planes, helicopters or individual cruise missiles. But she is overwhelmed by swarms of kamikaze drones and missiles. The Ukrainian armed forces have therefore already made the first adjustments, for example with the purchase of electronic anti-drone jamming guns such as the Lithuanian Sky Wiper EDM4S. In addition, Germany and the US, among others, supply even more air defense systems. Ukraine’s hopes of receiving an Iron Dome system from Israel will not be fulfilled for the time being.
Israel limits itself to medical and humanitarian aid
According to “Spiegel”, the Middle Eastern air defenses would probably be best suited to repel the drone swarms. Israel has successfully used the Iron Dome against Palestinian rocket attacks for years. However, despite requests from Kiev, the country does not want to sell weapons to Ukraine. Defense Minister Benny Gantz (63) told radio station Kol Chai on Tuesday evening: “I want to make it clear that we do not sell weapons to Ukraine.” Only medical and humanitarian aid is provided. This will remain so.
Israel is largely holding back in connection with the war in Ukraine so as not to jeopardize its relations with Moscow. A military expert from the Israeli newspaper “Jediot Achronot” writes that Israel will not provide Ukraine with the Iron Dome missile defense system for several reasons. “First, we don’t have enough ourselves.” In addition, Israeli soldiers with the appropriate expertise should operate the defense batteries. The only conceivable option would be the provision of early warning systems, such as those used in rocket attacks on Israel.
Expensive Soviet Anti-missiles
The Ukrainian government and its Western partners assume that the kamikaze drones used by Russia are supplied by Iran. Tehran denies this. EU states accuse Iran of supporting Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and have therefore already introduced new sanctions against the country. The controllable drones first appeared in August in the war in Ukraine. They are triangular in shape, weigh about 200 kilograms and have a warhead at the top. They can fly at speeds of up to 185 km/h and have a range of about 2500 km. With a unit price of around 20,000 euros, they are also very cheap compared to rockets.
According to media reports, Russia has bought hundreds of them. Thousands more will be added in the near future. In contrast, the Soviet S-300 anti-missile missiles owned by the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not only expensive but also scarce. The German Gepard anti-aircraft tank is therefore more suitable, writes “Spiegel”. “He uses radar to find his target and then fires relatively cheap, unguided ammunition at the missiles.” However, the cheetah is currently needed in the Ukrainian offensives at the front and therefore cannot protect cities like Kiev.
Shoulder-launched missiles, new systems from the West
Air defense expert Gustav C. Gressel of the European Council of Foreign Relations writes on Twitter: “The problem is that there are fewer cheetahs than drones – and the few you have are urgently needed to escort mechanized troops.” In addition, the cheetah is only suitable to a limited extent for protecting cities, because tall buildings would stand in the way. According to Gressel, shoulder-launched missiles are the better option in the short term. But it would also take an unrealistic number to protect major cities from drone attacks, the expert said.
In addition to the German Iris T air defense system, the Ukrainian air defense system also gets the Crotale defense system from France. However, Paris only has twelve in stock. From the US comes the compact Vampire system, which is specially designed for drone defense and can also be mounted on civilian vehicles. Also supplied by the US is the Titan anti-drone system, which uses artificial intelligence to identify the drones to be taken out. However, both Vampire and Titan are still largely untried.