With the beginning of meteorological winter, Germany has provided Ukraine with another IRIS-T SLM fire unit. This was reported by the 223rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment on its Facebook page, while a source familiar with the deliveries separately confirmed the latest handover to Ukraine to me.
According to my information, the training of Ukrainian soldiers in Germany was completed several weeks ago, at the beginning of November, while the delivery was carried out very recently.
This is the third delivery this year and the ninth IRIS-T SLM fire unit that Germany has provided since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, enabling the Ukrainian Air Force to defend itself extremely effectively against regular Russian attacks with loitering munitions, cruise missiles and more.
As with almost all previous deliveries, two IRIS-T SLS launchers were also integrated into the fire unit prior to handover.
These are equipped with slightly less powerful but also less expensive effectors, which can engage targets at a distance of up to 12 kilometres (up to 40 kilometres with SLM) and at an altitude of up to 8 kilometres (up to 20 kilometres with SLM).
Due to their cheaper production costs and greater availability, these are used in particular to intercept loitering munitions and reconnaissance drones.
The newly delivered fire unit has already proven its effectiveness
The 223rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment also announced that during the first few days of operation, the newly delivered fire unit had already intercepted nine Russian targets – five Kh-101 cruise missiles, two Iskander-K cruise missiles and two Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 loitering munitions.
According to the unit commander, IRIS-T (SLM/SLS) has proven to be a “reliable and effective weapon” and is used to protect “objects from air attacks in various directions and regions (of Ukraine)”.
With the handover of the ninth fire unit now complete, there will be no further deliveries this year. According to the German Ministry of Defence, the plan was actually to deliver a fourth fire unit before the end of the year, but this plan had to be abandoned for reasons unknown to me.
For this reason, only next year, at least three additional IRIS-T SLM fire units with additionally integrated IRIS-T SLS launchers will be delivered to Ukraine with additional deliveries in the years beyond.
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