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Germany’s Tenth IRIS-T Pushes Ukraine Closer to a Closed Sky
While Russia’s seems to get more porous
On May 31, Zelensky announced that Ukraine had received another IRIS-T air defense system from Germany. This is the tenth IRIS-T SLM firing unit Germany has sent since 2022.
For those who only mildly keep tabs on the Ukraine War, this seems like another procurement story: Crews trained in Germany, the battery is operational, file it under “ally sends more stuff,” yadda yadda.
But that tenth IRIS-T is really a status report on something more interesting: Ukraine is in the final stages of building a national air-defense wall in real time while Russia’s is somehow getting worse. Another brick in the wall, if you will.
Warning: Spotify is playing a Pink Floyd playlist while I type this so there may be one too many ‘brick in the wall’ references…
Actually, it’s almost as if Ukraine’s and Russia’s air defense infrastructure is inversely proportional: As one rises, another falls in proportion.
As a refresher, IRIS-T is a German-made surface-to-air missile system built by Diehl Defense.
The medium-range version Ukraine just received, the SLM, engages targets out to about 40 kilometers and up to 20 kilometers in altitude. Each…
