The US and its allies are in talks with unspecified Middle Eastern countries regarding a potential redeployment of some NASAMS middle-range air-defence systems from their territories to Ukraine, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said in an interview with Politico.
“There are NASAMS deployed across the Middle East, and some of our NATO allies and we [the U.S.] are actually working with a couple of Middle Eastern countries that currently employ NASAMS and trying to direct those back up to Ukraine,” Hayes noted.
According to him, the NASAMS systems are expected to be delivered to Ukraine in 3-6 months, while the US will deploy new ones to the Middle Eastern countries within 2 years. Hayes did not disclose which countries are involved in the decision-making. According to Politico, Oman and Qatar purchased NASAMS systems.
It is quicker to redeploy the systems to Ukraine than to produce them in the US which takes over 2 years due to the time required to buy electronic components and missile engines, Hayes adds.