Ukraine requested C-RAM air defense systems from US, ABC News reports
Ukrainian Armed Forces use various means to destroy Iranian drones (Photo:Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS)
Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk sent a letter to the U.S. Congress, asking Washington to supply Kyiv with highly mobile C-RAM air defense systems to combat Iranian-made kamikaze drones, ABC News reported on Nov. 7.
According to the report, in the letter Stefanchuk calls on the United States to provide Ukraine with C-RAM to protect “critical facilities, especially power plants.”
C-RAM has a built-in radar to track incoming airborne threats and a rapid-fire 20mm cannon to destroy them. NATO claims the systems are capable of firing 4,500 rounds per minute.
Stefanchuk also asked senior U.S. lawmakers to assist him in his appeal to U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to provide long-range missiles, so that the Ukrainian military can destroy Russian military targets such as “stockpiles of Iranian drones, deep behind enemy lines in occupied Ukraine.”
An unnamed Ukrainian official told ABC News that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are now using a variety of means to destroy Iranian drones.
He added that the Armed Forces of Ukraine sometimes resort to using anti-tank weapons to counter this threat. He also claimed that Ukrainian jet fighters track Iranian drones, and in some cases the Air Force is tasked with destroying them.
A source in the Ukrainian government noted that Kyiv is in negotiations with all its partners to create a “comprehensive and broad” air defense system across Ukraine.
“We don’t mean multiple systems near the front line,” the official added. “If we have this (integrated air defense system - ed), this war can end earlier.”
According to CNN, Russia received three types of Iranian drones: Mohajer-6, Shahed-129, and Shahed-191. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously stated that Moscow had ordered a total of 2,400 drones from Tehran.
For a long time, Iran categorically denied allegations of supplying drones to Russia. However, on Nov. 5, Iran's foreign minister for the first time acknowledged that Tehran had handed over drones to Russia, claiming this happened before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After these statements were made, Zelenskyy accused Tehran of lying.
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