Nauseda, who is visiting Kyiv on Wednesday, announced the purchase in a video message on Tuesday night.
The “Norwegian/National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System” (Nasams) is produced by Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace (KDA) in collaboration with the American Raytheon, and a contract has already been signed between Lithuania, the Norwegian authorities and the arms company.
Lithuania itself has since 2020 used Nasams which were ordered from Norway and KDA in 2016 and 2017.
USA, Norway and Canada
Eleven Nasams systems have already been donated to Ukraine.
The first two were put into use in Ukraine in November 2022 and belonged to the donation the USA announced last summer, with assistance from Norway for training and some material.
In August last year, the US announced that it would acquire six more Nasams systems from industry through the USAI (Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative) scheme, prompting the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to publish a video praising Nasams and thanking Norway.
Canada also announced earlier in 2023 that it will set aside approximately NOK three billion to acquire a Nasams system for Ukraine. The Canadians do not have Nasams themselves, so this is also air defense that is ordered from industry.
As Teknisk Ukeblad understands it, it is Canadian earmarked funds that are the basis for Ukraine being in the process of ordering the air defense itself.
In May, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which is part of the US Department of Defense, announced that the US State Department had approved FMS exports by Nasams to Ukraine.
There are currently 13 nations that use, or are in the process of using, Nasams: Australia, Chile, Finland, Indonesia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Spain, Ukraine, Hungary and the USA.
Last week, Nasams went top in the Norwegian Tech Awards.
2023-06-28 06:11:00
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