The Drive:

A day after a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine that left at least 20 dead and its energy infrastructure damaged, Ukraine received some good news about badly needed weaponry. The White House promised to speed up delivery of two of eight promised National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS. In addition, Ukraine has received the first of four promised IRIS-T SLM surface-to-air missile systems from Germany, as well as four more M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) systems from the U.S.

“We think that we’re on track to get those first two [NASAMS] over there in the very near future,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday. “We are certainly interested in expediting the delivery of NASAMS to Ukraine as soon as we can.”

It remains unclear how the NASAMS heading to Ukraine will be configured. A number of different versions of the system exist, made up of different combinations of launchers, radars and other sensors, and command and control nodes. Some NASAMS variants can incorporate missile launchers mounted on Humvees or other light vehicles. Tests have also been conducted of the HIMARS vehicle, which Ukraine has now received at least 16 of, as a launch platform for the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), which could be utilized with NASAMS.

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