Germany will hand over to Ukraine the IRIS-T air defense system, which is being developed at the request of another state

Germany wants to send to Ukraine the IRIS-T air defense system, which is being developed for another country.

What we know

This was reported by Annalena Baerbock, head of the German Foreign Ministry, in an interview with Radio Liberty. According to her, the production of the air defense missile system is now in its final stages.

Germany managed to reach an agreement with the customer so that the new air defense system would go to Ukraine. Ms Baerbock noted that the IRIS-T air defense system will be ready by the end of the summer, i.e. delivery is expected in September.

On the other hand, Christiane Hoffmann, Deputy Spokeswoman of the German Federal Government, stated that the new IRIS-T air defense missile systems will be shipped to Ukraine by the end of 2022. In general, this does not contradict what the foreign minister said, but usually the phrase "by the end of the year" said in the second half of summer means the end of the year, not the beginning of autumn.

The unpleasant thing is that because of the limited capacity we are talking about the delivery of only one surface-to-air missile system so far. The IRIS-T can destroy targets at altitudes up to 20 km. The system is designed to destroy cruise missiles, rockets, aircraft, drones and helicopters.

Source: Radio Liberty, Bild

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