Secretive American stocks of Soviet air defense systems are headed to Ukraine

[Nevilledog]

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https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44859/secretive-american-stocks-of-soviet-air-defense-systems-are-headed-to-ukraine-report



The U.S. government is sending Soviet-era air defense systems in its possession to Ukraine, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. These systems will reportedly come from stocks of foreign materiel that elements of the U.S. military and Intelligence Community have obtained in various ways over the years for intelligence analysis and training purposes. The possibility that these so-called foreign materiel exploitation, or FME, programs could offer a useful source of additional air defense capabilities that Ukraine badly needs is exactly what that The War Zone laid out just recently.

It's not entirely clear from The Wall Street Journal's story, which was published earlier today, which entity or entities within the U.S. government is managing this effort. The story indicates that an arm of the U.S. military, broadly, is managing this military assistance project, but says that Pentagon declined to comment one way or the other.

The Journal's piece did say that the U.S. government has already shipped a number of systems to Ukraine that had been in storage at the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo planes reportedly picked them up at an unspecified airfield in the Huntsville area. The story notes that Redstone is home to the Army's Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), but it also hosts the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC), which has an FME role. DIA serves as the focal point for the Department of Defense's entire FME enterprise, as well.

The U.S. military has been very active in delivering and otherwise facilitating the shipment of military aid to Ukraine, even before Russia launched its invasion. This includes various air defense systems, especially different types of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, also known as man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS). In addition, American officials have made clear that there is a heavy emphasis on sending weapons and equipment that Ukrainian forces are already familiar with, an idea The War Zone had earlier explained the merits of. The core idea behind that philosophy is that this will make it faster and easier for Ukraine's military to actively put what it receives to use in combat. Ukraine's ground-based air defenses have been essential in preventing Russian forces from gaining air superiority over the country after more than three weeks of fighting.

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[SWBTATTReg]

1. Excellent! And I strongly suspect that any tricks on how to fool such Russian equipment is

also well known to the American military experts, who'll hopefully share that advice w/ the Ukrainians in some manner, e.g., via our Poland NATO buddies who are close chums of the Ukrainians.