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On Thursday, May 4, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, said in a Telegram post on May 3 that a division of the IRIS-T air defense systems had destroyed more than 60 hostile air targets over Ukraine since October 2022, New Voice of Ukraine reported. He also subsequently shared a video showing the systems in action. Ukrainian officers and military experts also observed that the IRIS-T is a valuable asset as it can share information from its radar with “neighboring” air defense systems. This allows seamless air defense tracking to defuse enemy targets.
On Friday, May 5, it was reported that a missile-defense system proposed for Guam is expected to be operational by 2027 and comprise up to 20 individual sites across the island to achieve 360-degree coverage, according to the Missile Defense Agency.
New details about the project — the Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense System — show 20 locations ranging from Guam’s northernmost coastline to the island’s relatively remote southern region, according to a fact sheet released by the agency on Friday.
Also on Friday, it was reported that more than 20 warships, 35 aircraft and eight onshore units take part as 13 NATO Allied and partner nations on May 8 kicks off Formidable Shield, an exercise inside the Arctic Circle aimed at training air and missile defense. Russian long-range cruise missiles pose a big threat to Norway’s military infrastructure in the north. Last week, a government-appointed expert defense commission delivered its report, addressing the vulnerability against missiles in a scenario where Russia would activate its bastion defense to protect the ballistic missile submarines sailing out from the Kola Peninsula.
On Saturday, May 6, it was reported that the downing of a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile by a Patriot missile, confirmed by three senior U.S. officials, appeared to offer the first proof that Russia’s hypersonic missiles — presented as invulnerable by President Vladimir V. Putin — could be defeated by current Western missile defense systems. “I congratulate the Ukrainian people on a historic event,” Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of the Ukrainian air force, said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app. “Yes, we have shot down the ‘unparalleled’ ‘Kinzhal.’”
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