NASAMS for Ukraine: Delayed delivery due to funding problems on the part of the United States
The NASAMS air defense system purchased by Canada for Ukraine is “stuck” in the United States.
This was reported by the Edmonton Journal.
The order, worth $406 million, was reportedly placed more than a year ago and has not yet been fulfilled.
“The Americans must provide the funding to complete the contracts (with the manufacturer Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace),” said Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair.
According to Blair, without the combined deal, it would have taken years to acquire NASAMS through the normal procurement process.
“We tried to speed it up. Unfortunately, the Americans have encountered some difficulties in their financing,” Blair said.
The Canadian Minister of Defense added that all parties understand the importance of implementing this project.
“(Ukraine) has said that they want us to continue the process of acquiring these NASAMS missiles as soon as possible, and we are doing everything we can to make that happen,” he said.
As a reminder, the purchase of the NASAMS Militarny air defense system by Canada was announced in January 2013.
At the time, the timeframe for the transfer of the complex was not specified. At the time, Militarny assumed that, given the words about buying these systems from the United States, they would be manufactured from scratch at Raytheon Technologies. In this case, production may be delayed due to the production queue.
Recently, it was reported that the Norwegian government is proposing to the country’s parliament to approve the order of additional NASAMS air defense systems for Ukraine.
This includes ten new launchers and four control centers to be purchased from Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace (KDA).
The cost of ordering these elements of the NASAMS air defense system is NOK 3.45 billion. They are planned to be ordered in addition to the equipment already delivered to Ukraine as part of military aid.
