U.S. Wants More Ukrainian Air Defenses To Counter Russian Fleet

The Russian Air Force has substantial aircraft remaining in its inventory for an expected spring offensive in Ukraine if Moscow chooses to get them involved, so the U.S. and its partners must continue to deliver air defenses, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said following the latest meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group.

Austin says although U.S. intelligence does not see Russia preparing for a massive air attack, more systems such as Raytheon Patriots and European-built IRIS-T and SAMP-T defense missiles will be needed to keep Ukraine’s skies protected from air attacks.

“We do know that Russia has a substantial number of aircraft in its inventory and a lot of capability left. That’s why we’ve emphasized that we need to do everything that we can to get Ukraine as much air defense capability as we possibly can,” Austin says.

Officials have forecasted a spring offensive to break a stalemate in Ukraine’s east, where there has been a “war of attrition” with heavy casualties in locations such as the Donbass, says Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Leadership and morale is not great, and they’re struggling mightily,” Milley says of Russia’s forces. “However, they do have numbers.”

This has led to speculation that Russia may move its air force closer to the fight. Since the invasion’s early days, Russian aircraft have stayed largely inside the country’s own airspace to launch standoff missiles because of Ukraine’s effective air defenses.

“We want to make sure that they have the ability to protect themselves going forward in any event that Russia tries to introduce its air force into this fight,” Austin says. “They haven’t done so thus far because Ukraine’s air defenses have been pretty effective.”

On Feb. 14, the Defense Intelligence Agency released a new report outlining the extent to which Iranian-made uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) have been used by Russia to attack Ukrainian targets. Russia has used multiple Iranian-made drones, including the Shahed-136 and -131 one-way attack UAS, and the Mohajer-6 multirole UAS. Ukrainian air defenses have been able to down these systems, but they still have been able to target key infrastructure.