Adapting Buk systems for pairing to work together with American missiles: Yurii Ihnat report on the current stage of the process

American partners have seen success in using U.S.-made Sea Sparrow missiles with Buk systems.

Yurii Ihnat, Spokesperson of the Air Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, made this statement during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform.

“We are working with everything that can be put into service today. In particular, we are talking about Sea Sparrow missile’s integration into Soviet-era Buk launchers. Of course, our American partners have managed to adapt these missiles, and they have been tested, it all worked out. Now we are still working on how, in what quantity, where they will operate, various aspects are being figured out, no further details of this can be provided now,” said Yurii Ihnat. 

According to Yurii Ihnat, in addition to using US missiles on Soviet systems, other types of weapons, such as the Hawk, are being supplied.

“It hasn’t been mentioned for a long time, but it works and works quite effectively. And people are now undergoing training in Europe to operate these very systems, on the Hawk, in order to increase their number in the air force. There are enough of these systems today, the world’s production is quite big, and they have been decommissioned, so we can count on strengthening our air defense with these systems, even though they are obsolete and outdated. But, as we can see, the enemy’s air attack capabilities are not decreasing, so we need more firepower, such as the Hawk systems, which are quite good at destroying both cruise missiles and enemy drones,” he added.

However, according to Yurii Ihnat, the focus today should not be on what is being done by force, such as mobile fire groups, Hawk or Buk firing American Sea Sparrow missiles, the main goal is to rearm Ukraine forces with modern types of equipment: these include air defense systems such as anti-aircraft missile systems, radio engineering troops and aviation.

“The systems, though provided by our partners in small quantities, are working very, very effectively today,” he added.

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