Russian artillery and air defense systems must be preemptively destroyed – Air Force spox| ukraine news
Enemy air defense systems and rocket artillery must be preemptively destroyed. For this, Ukraine needs modern Western-made aircraft.
“They must be destroyed preventively, namely by all long-range weapons. There is, of course, counter-battery combat, in which the M142 HIMARS is used, for example. But if we had aircraft powerful, capable of launching long-range strikes with the systems available to modern Western aircraft, we would more effectively destroy the enemy at long distances,” said Yuriy Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force of the United States. Ukrainian armed forces, during the national telethon.
Currently, according to the spokesman, Ukraine uses Western AGM-88 HARM missiles, which are installed on old Soviet aircraft, to counter enemy air defense.
“These missiles are installed on Soviet fighters but, unfortunately, because of this, they do not have all the functionality they would have if they were launched from F-16 aircraft. Then the HARMs would work at longer ranges and more accurately, destroying more enemy air defense systems,” the Air Force spokesman said.
He also explained that equipping old planes with Western missiles is a difficult and expensive process.
“This aeronautical equipment is obsolete. Therefore, it is not profitable to invest so much money and time in it. A minor modernization of these devices has been carried out, namely: the communication system has been adapted to NATO standards, GPS navigation and identification friend or enemy system have been improved. For wartime, these are not significant changes. It would be necessary to replace half of an aircraft and put on-board radar systems to adapt our MiG-29s to Western weapons. Then we could install cruise missiles, aerial guided bombs, and even missiles like Harpoon,” Ihnat added.
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