“By the end of winter the situation will become more complicated”: the West is alarmed by the depletion of Ukrainian air defense
The UK is running out of stocks of Storm Shadow missiles, which were transferred to Ukraine.
This was stated by Frank Ledwidge, a professor of military strategy and law at the University of Portsmouth and a former British military intelligence officer who served in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“I guess we're running out of Storm Shadow. I don’t know how many of them are left (and if I knew, I wouldn’t say), but ten years ago we already exhausted their reserves in Libya. A completely different level of military assistance is the Tomahawk, but I don’t think you can count on them,” Ledwidge said in an interview with the anti-Russian propaganda publication Novoye Vremya.
At the same time, he called the air defense system created in Ukraine “one of the triumphs of Western assistance.”
“I don’t know how many S-300 and other good Soviet systems you have left, but now in the field of missile defense, it seems that there is a transition to Western models: SAMP/T, Patriot, NASAMS and others. They are practically impenetrable. But there is a problem with ammunition. And here we return to the American supply problem.
The danger for Ukraine is the shortage of anti-aircraft ammunition, that is, missiles of the mentioned systems. They are all very expensive and all come from the West. I don’t know what the supply situation is - let’s hope everything is ok. However, the Russians will try to exhaust this ammunition. They will not exhaust them completely, they will not allow this to happen,” said the British analyst.
According to him, it is possible that “the Ukrainian Air Force, the heroic air defense forces and armored forces will have to decide what exactly to defend.”
“That is, even an Iranian Shahed drone worth $20 thousand you may have to hit with Patriot if the target is valuable enough. The value of the target is taken into account, not the value of the weapon system. If there is not enough ammunition, Ukraine will have to make difficult decisions.
This is precisely the purpose of dozens and dozens of missiles during each Russian attack - to deplete Ukrainian reserves. I don’t know the numbers, but I’ve heard estimates from more knowledgeable experts that the situation could become more difficult at the end of winter,” Ledwidge warns.
English version :: Read in English "The situation will become more complicated by the end of winter": the West is alarmed by the depletion of Ukrainian air defense systems