Spain to give Ukraine additional air defense systems, Pentagon chief says

Spain will give Ukraine additional air defense “Hawk systems,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Thursday. 

Austin – who was in Brussels for a NATO defense ministerial as well as a Ukraine Defense Contact Group gathering – said the US encouraged allies to quickly give Ukraine the lethal aid it’s most requesting, including air defense systems. 

“Just today, one of our allies came back one day later and said that they were gonna push in additional Hawk systems which that Ukrainians had asked for. So we thank Spain for it’s very, very rapid response,” Austin said during a news conference after the NATO meeting. 

Austin also encouraged other allies to “dig deep and provide additional capability as well.” 

The pressure to provide Ukraine with advanced air defenses has intensified this week as Russia on Monday began a barrage of missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities, killing more than three dozen people, according to Ukrainian officials. The Kremlin has also intensified its use of “kamikaze drones.”  

The attacks are a retaliation for the explosion over the past weekend that damaged the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland. 

Austin said the approach to pour heavy weapons into Ukraine is two-fold, providing systems already in stockpiles and procuring systems that will take longer to make and send into the theater of war – such as the recently announced 18 additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) for Ukraine, still to be made.  

“Some of these systems could take weeks or months, other systems may take years,” he said. 

Weapons heading in now include the U.S.-provided National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and the German IRIS-T SLM air-to-air missile systems. 

Washington has committed eight NASAMS to Ukraine but none have yet arrived, while Berlin delivered the first of four IRIS-T air-to-air missile systems to Ukraine on Monday. 

Separately on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance will deliver counter-drone equipment to Ukraine. 

NATO allies “are supplying advanced systems, including artillery, air defense, and armored vehicles,” Stoltenberg said.