Ukraine says it's working on its own air defense systems, responding

Ukraine says it’s working on new, domestically-produced air defenses.
The decision was in response to the new Russian “Oreshnik” missile, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said.
In 2024, 30% of Ukraine’s military gear was made in the country, according to President Zelenskyy.

Ukraine is working on a homegrown air defense system to rival the US-made Patriot, according to the commander in chief of its army.

The decision was spurred by the development of Russia’s new missile, dubbed “Oreshnik,” Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi told TSN, according to a translation by the Kyiv Independent.

“This encourages us to create our own air defense system, which would be not just an air defense system, but also an anti-missile system,” he said.

Syrskyi added that “the work is underway, it is being actively pursued in this direction.”

Russia fired its first Oreshnik at an industrial site in Dnipro, central Ukraine, in November.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the weapon was a “non-nuclear hypersonic warhead” that can travel at Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound.

Syrskyi said that only a handful of defense systems can intercept the Oreshnik, and that Kyiv doesn’t currently have that ability. But he said that “back in Soviet times, we actually produced all the control systems for anti-aircraft systems.”

Ukraine has struggled to counter Russia’s missile and drone attacks with its existing air defenses, with the country repeatedly asking for more Patriots and other air defenses from its allies.

The full-scale Russian invasion has prompted a flowering of defense production in Ukraine, both with domestic companies and international manufacturing partnerships.

Ukraine produced almost a third of the weapons and gear it used in 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this month.

Some Western defense manufacturers have also signed joint production deals and have set up shop in Ukraine. This includes Germany’s defense behemoth Rheinmetall, which said it’s working on a new air defense facility there.

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On Thursday, the UK announced that it was giving Ukraine a new air defense system called Gravehawk, which had been jointly funded by Denmark.

Gravehawk can modify air-to-air missiles to be fired from the ground, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, with the truck-mounted system helping to free up more powerful resources — such as the Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems — for bigger targets.

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