After the Norwegian Ministry of Defence confirmed to “GAU” two weeks ago that Norway would participate in the re-launched IAAD initiative (now EAAD initiative) to strengthen Ukraine’s air defence, Belgium is now following suit.
Belgium’s Minister of Defence, Theo Francken, announced yesterday in the Belgian Parliament that he and the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Prévot, had received a letter from their German counterparts asking Belgium to participate in the German EAAD initiative.
With the EAAD initiative (Enduring Action on Air Defence), Germany offers a platform through which other countries can either contribute financially to the procurement of equipment for the Ukrainian Air Force or provide air defence-related equipment from their own stocks.
According to the German Ministry of Defence, this allowed around one billion euros in funding or equipment to be collected and made available last year.
According to the statement by the Belgian Minister of Defence, which was made available to “GAU” by his office upon enquiry, Belgium will participate in the German initiative, as it did last year.
Although the Belgian Ministry of Defence is “currently working on the full reconstruction of its own air defence capabilities”, which means that Belgium will not supply its own equipment, it is willing to provide financial resources amounting to €140 million.
The funds have not yet been earmarked for a specific purpose, but the money would enable the procurement of around two dozen modern missiles for the MIM-104 Patriot air defence system, seven or eight state-of-the-art TRML-4D air surveillance radars or even a complete IRIS-T SLM fire unit, for example.
In addition, Belgium has offered to provide one of the seven Belgian Airbus A400M transport aircraft to transport equipment from the United States to Ukraine.
According to the protocol, Francken explicitly mentioned the possibility of transporting MIM-104 Patriot fire units.
According to Theo Francken, he will meet with the German ambassador Martin Kotthaus today and inform him personally about the Belgian efforts.
Already last year, Belgium participated extensively in the German initiative to support the Ukrainian Air Force. A total of €200 million was made available, with additional military equipment also being supplied. This made Belgium one of the largest contributors in 2024.
Finally, I would like to express my special thanks to John Felix. He brought this to my attention and also helped with some background research.
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