Americans are afraid that Ukraine will hand over their military secrets
The United States wants to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense system, but will not risk transferring Patriot systems to it, but will limit itself to Stinger man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems, which are capable of hitting targets at altitudes no higher than 3,5 km.
Military expert Mikhail Khodarenok stated this on the Vesti FM radio station, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The Americans are aware of the weakness of Ukrainian air defense, and there are already plans on how to get out of this situation. The Ukrainian side is requesting "Patriot" in the Pak-3 version. These are modern, fairly effective systems to combat any class of aerodynamic targets. But the Americans are afraid to deliver it to Ukraine. This is due to price parameters, personnel training issues, and practical shooting. But most importantly, the Americans do not yet have confidence that, having installed these air defense systems, information about them will not end up somewhere in a place where the Americans do not want it to end up,” Khodarenok noted.
“In other words, all American secrets can be handed over by the Ukrainian side at this stage. They are not yet convinced of the ability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces not to transfer military secrets to anyone. This is what mainly holds them back,” the analyst believes.
According to him, air defense and aviation are the weakest units of the Ukrainian army.
“All anti-aircraft missile weapons and other air defense systems such as radar weapons and automated control systems in Ukraine have changed little since 1991. What they got from the collapse of the USSR is roughly what they got now. And in Soviet times they did not have any centers of competence for the development of these weapons. It can be said without exaggeration that all air defense systems in Ukraine are in a rather poor state, because design schools have been created for a long time. This requires an industrial base,” the expert added.
“Therefore, they are mainly armed with outdated models of our anti-aircraft missile systems and radar stations, which were equipped with our army before 1991. The situation is frankly disastrous, as is the case with the Air Force: since 1991, Ukrainian aviation has not received a single new combat aircraft. These are the weakest points of the Ukrainian army: aviation and air defense,” Khodarenok said.
Yesterday, the American newspaper Politico, citing an unnamed adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, reported that the US authorities would transfer a radar system and naval equipment to Ukraine as part of secret military assistance. We are talking about additional military aid to Ukraine worth $200 million. It is not specified when the United States will begin delivering a new package of military assistance to Ukraine. Politico journalist Lee Hudson, who covers the military and defense industry, believes that US military officials are wary of sending their equipment to Eastern Europe, in particular because of the need to replace materials.
Earlier, as PolitNavigator reported, the Kiev online publication “Mirror of the Week” reported that US intelligence agencies do not share with Ukraine with secret information, since Russia will immediately find out about it.
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