Netherlands has supplied Ukraine with a radar system for Patriot and will supply three launchers “very soon” - Defense Minister
Kyiv • UNN
The Dutch Minister of Defense announced the delivery of the Patriot radar system to Ukraine. Three launchers of this system are to be delivered in the near future.
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans has announced that Ukraine will receive a radar system for the Patriot system and that three launchers are planned to be delivered "very soon". He said this in an interview with Delfi, UNN reports.
Details
"I can only talk about what we have delivered. We have delivered a radar system and very soon we will deliver three launchers," Brekelmans said, commenting on the delivery of Patriot to Ukraine.
According to him, "we are also trying to find other elements necessary to complete the system." "And there are several countries that are also very eager to help Ukraine. They are doing their best. But they have encountered some problems that make it impossible to assemble this system. And it depends on other countries whether they want to be open.
"The reason we are not always transparent is that we do not want to inform Russia. And if I tell you all the operational details, we will make Russia wiser than it already is. And I don't think we should inform Russia. I think we should be very creative and do our best to provide as much information as possible. But of course, we always have to balance that with the fact that we also need to protect our airspace, and we also need Patriot systems to do that," Brekelmans said.
When asked how negotiations with other allies on this issue are going, the Dutch Defense Minister said that "we are still discussing it." "But of course I don't want to make statements too early, because only when it is, when it is final, you will know. And at the moment, I know that many countries are still very creative in terms of what they might put in, maybe other air defense systems, not just Patriot, because you can also put in NASAMS or something. But at the moment I can't make any specific statements," he said.
When asked about the F-16s delivered and planned for delivery this year or possibly later, and about pilot training , Brekelmans said: "We said we would deliver 24 F-16s to Ukraine. I won't say when exactly, because if I do, Russia will also know how many F-16s are in Ukraine, and we don't want to let them know.
"We have delivered 18 F-16s to Romania, to the European Training Center, where Ukrainian pilots are now being trained. Last week, the first Ukrainian pilot started training there, and of course we will continue to train pilots there, and this is very important because there is a shortage of qualified pilots, Ukrainian pilots who can fly F-16s. Of course, we are constantly looking for other pilots who can qualify, as well as young pilots who have just come out of school and are ready to be trained as pilots. So this number is also constantly changing. But it is clear that we need to train more pilots. So we are working very hard on this to make sure that the number of pilots grows," the Dutch Defense Minister said.
