Italy To Supply Another SAMP/T Air Defense System To Ukraine

The Italian government is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine that will include a SAMP/T medium-range air defense system, La Repubblica reported on May 2.

The Italian newspaper said that the air defense system Italy plans to deliver was deployed in Slovakia. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said in March that Rome decided to pull back the system from his country, without clarifying the reason.

The military aid package will also allegedly include American-made Stinger man-portable air defense systems, La Repubblica wrote.

The newspaper reported that the package should be presented by the upcoming Group of Seven, G7, summit in Italy, which will begin on June 13.

Italy has only five SAMP/T batteries. Last year, it supplied a system to Ukraine in cooperation with France. The system was destroyed, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The air defense system, which was developed by the France-based Eurosam, is armed with Aster-30 radar homing interceptors originally developed for naval vessels with a range of up to 120 kilometers. The system utilizes THALES’s ARABEL multifunction fire control X-band radar which has a range of 100 kilometers, according to South front