This was reported by Reuters news agency on Thursday, Ukrinform reported.

“Germany is developing a short-range air defense system worth about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) to fill the gap in its defenses after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and replace long-decommissioned Gepard tanks and other equipment.” “will give the order,” the article says.

Regarding the interlocutors, the agency reported that on Thursday the German budget committee approved the deal for the consortium consisting of Rheinmetall, Diehl and Hensoldt “despite the five-fold increase in price criticized by the federal auditor’s court.” “

The main task of the companies will be to develop a short-range air defense system with a very small radius of action, starting from three kilometers, where the threat consists mostly of small drones.

“The very short-range system will most likely be based on Rheinmetall’s Skyranger 30, a 30mm gun mounted on the Boxer APC, and the vehicles themselves have not yet been supplied. Targets more than three kilometers away will be detected by Diehl’s IRIS-T.” should be shot SLS system” – is stated in the material.

In the past, Germany relied mainly on the Gepard anti-aircraft tank for air defense at a very short range of up to three kilometers – “a weapon that became famous during the war in Ukraine”. Berlin retired its Cheetahs in 2010 to save money.

The companies’ second task will be to connect this system to Diehl’s IRIS-T SLM medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems that Berlin has already ordered to create a larger, multi-layered protective umbrella.

Hensoldt will supply the radars of this system, which is expected to be ready in 2026 or 2027.

As reported by Ukrinform, an anti-aircraft installation for automatic mobile groups was developed and produced in the Lviv region, which works on the principle of the well-known German Gepard complex, but has a lower cost.