Ukraine's Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, announced the delivery of the first four batteries of the Deihl IRIS-T SLM modern air defence systems. The move came after the German Defence Ministry condemned the recent Russian missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Russia carried out the raids in response to Ukrainian attacks on the Crimean bridge.
The IRIS-T SLM system is a medium-range system designed to protect against aircraft and missiles at ranges of up to 40 kilometres and altitudes of up to 20 kilometres. Ukraine has several inherited Soviet air defence systems as well as many Man-Portable Air Defence Systems. The IRIS-T-SLM has more modern sensors and command-and-control capabilities than many of Ukraine"s existing systems, which may help improve detection ranges and response times.
