October 9, 2024: Since early 2022 Russia has used thousands of ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missiles, unguided rockets and bombs, and one-way attack drones on Ukraine. European NATO members noticed and sought to prepare their existing air defense systems to meet an attack from Russia. Currently each NATO nation has its own air defense systems, but most have none at all because, until Russia turned violent, there seemed no need for air defenses. With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the resulting Russian Federation seemed peaceful. Russia had no enemies. That was not true because Russian governments tend to be paranoid and aggressive and, when Vladimir Putin gained power in 1999 and proceeded to change laws to make himself president for life, he contended that some of Russia’s neighbors were plotting against it. Then Putin increased the size of the military and sought to take, by force, neighboring territories he believed should be part of Russia.

In 2014 he went after the Crimean Peninsula and Luhansk and Donetsk, two eastern Ukrainian provinces that Putin believed should belong to Russia because they had large Russian populations. Ukraine resisted the seizure of these two provinces and sent troops to chase the Russian soldiers out. In 2022 Russia declared these two provinces to be independent states. Few nations recognized this and the UN pointed out that the Russian actions were a violation of international law.

In 2022 Russia decided to grab more territory it believed it was part of Russia. In this case it was Ukraine, another new country created when the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991 and was divided into fourteen new countries. Among them was the Russian Federation and Ukraine. After Ukraine lost Crimea and portions of Luhansk and Donetsk in 2014, they sought to get back these territories via negotiations with Russia. That dragged on until 2022 when Russia decided to settle the matter by invading Ukraine. If Russia could conquer Ukraine, the disputes over Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk would disappear.

Russia did not expect the intensity of the Ukrainian resistance and their invasion failed. Then in August 2024 Ukraine invaded Russia, sending troops into Kursk province. Russian resistance was virtually non-existent. The Ukrainian invasion force was accompanied by over a thousand drones which provided surveillance as well as the ability to attack any Russian defenders. The drone based air war in Ukraine developed naturally between Ukraine and the Russian but NATO nations that provided military aid to Ukraine were mystified and sought to find out more about this new form of warfare. All the Ukrainian drones were designed and built in Ukraine. This new form of air warfare was born and evolved in Ukraine, with the Russians playing catch up to maintain their war effort. Many Ukrainians built drones at home or in small workshops and sent them to soldiers they knew. Ukrainian soldiers often tinkered with drones they received, making improvements before launching them at the enemy.

Ukraine shared its knowledge with their NATO supporters and that led to some NATO nations establishing factories to produce drones for Ukraine.

One thing NATO nations were concerned about was how they could defend themselves against hostile drones as well as the many ballistic and cruise missiles Russia had used against Ukraine. NATO nations had no defense against such weapons and, given continued Russian aggression, these weapons might one day be used against a NATO nation bordering Russia.

Some NATO nations, like France, Britain, Germany, Italy and the United States developed and built weapons for export. These nations had no enemies, until Russia attacked Ukraine. As part of NATO support for Ukraine, member nations sent weapons they built for their own use and export. This included a lot of air defense weapons that were getting their first use in a near-peer war between two nations with equal technical capabilities. Contributors noted the performance of their weapons and modified them to make them more effective. The manufacturers could now export their air defense weapons as combat proven in Ukraine. That’s very encouraging to potential buyers. One item that is missing is equipment to integrate the air defense systems for multiple countries. This would also provide each country with an electronic display of their entire air combined defense networks as well as the location of any intruders.

For NATO nations, they now have numerous air defense systems that have been used successfully in combat. Currently this helps with exports but in the future, it could prove essential if Russia decided to attack more neighboring countries.