Ukraine, U.S., Developing "Replacement" for S-300 Air Defense system

Ukraine and the U.S. are developing an air defense system similar to the Soviet Origin S-300 which has proved highly effective in the Ukrainian conflict.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made this announcement at the 24th meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine today in Ramstein air base in Germany.

"With the support of several European companies, the United States is working with Ukraine to develop and manufacture a replacement for the S-300 surface-to-air anti-aircraft system, as well as the R-27 air-to-air missile," Austin said.

While Secretary Austin did not provide details, the need for the new system appears to have arisen from the need to have a large number of air defense systems to cover the Ukrainian airspace.

Current systems donated to Ukraine such as the American Patriot and German IRIS-T are too few to provide protection against Russian missiles and aircraft. They are expensive to make and take months to assemble one system.

At the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine had some 25-30 S-300PT/PS divisions in various states of combat readiness. Less than half are reported to be left now.

The remaining S-300 systems are handicapped by but the acute shortage of anti-aircraft missiles for them. Air defense systems available in Ukraine use missiles of the 5V55 series, which are no longer manufactured and unavailable on the world market.

In contrast, a new S-300 can only be viable if it can use missiles from Western systems such as the IRIS-T, Hawk and others.