The US Army signed a $1.2 billion contract with Raytheon for the production of six NASAMS air defense systems for Ukraine, reports Reuters with reference to the press site of Pentagon.

The United States approved sending a total of eight NASAMS complexes to Ukraine. In November 2022, AFU received the first two NASAMS. Others will be delivered in the future, in order of production. And that seems to be the problem.

The final deadline for the contract, specified in the Pentagon’s message, is November 28, 2025. One can only hope that this is only the cut-off date, 3 years from the date of signing the agreement, and that the production of the air defense system will take place much earlier.

According to a Pentagon statement, these six NASAMS systems were part of the fifth package of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) for $2.98 billion, which was announced on August 24. USAI funds allow the Biden administration to buy weapons from industry rather than draw from existing US military stockpiles.

The $1.2 billion deal includes the production of launchers, spare parts, equipment, personnel training, logistics and other services.

Qatar, Hungary, and Taiwan are also in line for the latest generation NASAMS with support for AMRAAM-ER long-range missiles. But the “more than 4 systems” of NASAMS for Taiwan will not arrive until 2024, apparently due to a delay related to the fulfillment of the order for Ukraine.

Tactical and technical specifications of the NASAMS air defense system
Range – from 2.5 to 40 km
Target height – from 30 m to 21 km
Response time – 10 s
Deployment/stowage time – 15/3 min
Target speed – up to 1000 m/s
AIM-120 AMRAAM:
Missile weight – 152 kg
Warhead – 22.7 kg
Length – 3.7 m
Diameter – 18 cm
Speed – 1361 m/s
Overload – 40 g