a Franco-Italian-made surface-to-air defense system delivered to kyiv, announces Emmanuel Macron

A medium-range surface-to-air defense system SAMP / T, of Franco-Italian manufacture, has been delivered to Ukraine where it is now operational, announced on Monday June 19, President Emmanuel Macron, four months after having promised it in Kyiv.

Paris had announced in early February the delivery of this equivalent of the Patriot. “I am happy to be able to announce to you with my Italian colleague Giorgia Meloni that the Franco-Italian SAMP/T is now deployed and operational in Ukraine, where it protects key installations and lives”said the French head of state in a speech in Paris on the air and anti-missile defense of Europe.

“Counter a wide range of threats”

The SAMP/T MAMBA is the first European long-range anti-missile system. It is supposed to help Ukraine deal with attacks from Russian drones, missiles and planes. With this system, its radar and its launchers armed with eight Aster missiles with a range of approximately 100 km, “we can counter a wide range of airborne threats: short-range ballistic missiles, fighter jets, helicopters, drones and even cruise missile salvoes with multiple shots,” underlined in December in Romania a French soldier.

kyiv has been calling for months to strengthen its ground-to-air defenses, especially after a wave of Russian strikes on its critical infrastructure using Iranian drones last fall. A MAMBA had already been deployed in Romania to protect the highly strategic region of the port of Constanta, on the Black Sea.