Defense Minister explained why Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system will not help Ukraine

By: Maksim Panasovskiy | 09.07.2022, 22:27

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov during a business conference at Forbes spoke about the situation with the air defense system in our country.

What we know

Reznikov said that Ukrainian soldiers destroy a large number of Russian missiles and airplanes, but despite this Ukraine needs to improve the quality of air defense. According to the minister, Russian aviation is afraid of approaching Ukraine, so it launches missiles from its territory, from Belarus, Crimea, as well as from the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

"We, Ukraine, even today already have protection for our skies. It is not perfect, but believe me, we shoot down quite a large number of missiles that fly. Enemy planes no longer fly in our skies because they are afraid and know that we shoot them down. They use the old X-22, X-55 and other missiles. The aggressor fires them from the territory of Russia, from the territory of Belarus, from the Black Sea and even the Caspian Sea, from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian Crimea. The enemy is afraid of approaching because we have very professional air forces, and soldiers of all types, branches and forces of the AFU and other components of the defense forces masterfully use MANPADs," Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov

However, the well-known missile defense system "Iron Dome" will not be able to demonstrate its effectiveness in Ukraine. This is due to the fact that the Israeli development is aimed at destroying slow missiles flying at low altitudes. It cannot provide protection against ballistic and cruise missiles.

"We all know the example of Israel defending the skies quite well. We all know the name Iron Dome, but even it does not protect 100%. What's more, I've been to Israel, talked to their manufacturers, state-owned companies. "Iron Dome is made against slow, low-altitude, lightly struck missiles made, essentially, in garages. The iron dome does not protect against cruise and ballistic missiles. There's another air defense system out there that is being developed in Israel itself and is in the Czech Republic and the United States. So we need to develop our own air defense/protection system or get one, including from our partners," - Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov.

Source: Forbes

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