War, everyone in the world is chasing anti-missile defenses. But they are in short supply – Il Tempo

Anti-missile defenses wanted. It is the most popular announcement in recent years. Thanks to the war in Ukraine, the tensions in the Red Sea and now the attacks between Israel and Iran, defense forces around the world have now understood that they must protect themselves from the sky because that is where the greatest dangers come from. Missiles, drones and enemy flocks are the new deadly danger and in this scenario the bubble of anti-missile defenses was born with skyrocketing costs and very long delivery times. Surface-to-air missiles are now a rarity and the images recently arrived from Chernyhiv, on the outskirts of Kiev, make it clear what it means not to have them. The Russian bombs, which arrived undisturbed on the target, prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a desperate appeal to his allies. Requests, however, returned to the sender by European partners who are finding it increasingly difficult to deprive themselves of precious defense systems. A bubble in anti-missile defenses, explained by Gianluca Di Feo in La Repubblica, in place since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. An increasingly frenetic global race for interceptors: “everyone wants to equip themselves with shields to keep cruise ships, ballistic devices and drones away. And we are talking about very expensive equipment.”

The US Navy has estimated the dollars already spent to stop the Houthis and their attacks in the Red Sea at one billion. The Israeli Defense Forces have spent over half a billion defending themselves from Iran’s attack. These are estimates made on pre-conflict tariffs. “Current prices are much higher – explains Di Feo –. A Pac-3 missile for the Patriots in 2020 was paid around three million dollars: the thousand ordered a year ago from a consortium of European countries and produced in Germany will cost five million per specimen”. The SM-3 darts of the Aegis system are very expensive: 27 million each. But why does all this happen? “It is partly a speculative bubble – explains the reporter –. Partly because the new models are equipped with updates and improvements dictated by the experiences of these years of battles.”

The Pentagon also says that the situation is serious, having “urgently” asked Congress for 95 billion dollars to replace the armaments sent to Zelensky. With a view to a possible direct confrontation with China, the Americans are allocating more and more money to upgrading missile factories, with the desire to increase production over the next 3 years. While work is being done quickly in the States, in Italy – where there are ‘only’ 5 surface-to-air batteries – we are dealing with bureaucracy and it is estimated that a national dome will only be ready in 2032. In fact, it is estimated that the work in structures will begin when overseas factories “are already in full operation”. With continental production stalled, other countries have developed – and sell – their own defense systems: Turkey sold a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun to Kazakhstan and Nigeria. Result? In 2023, Turkish military exports reached five billion euros. “The coup from Seoul’s Lig Nex1 is much richer” explains the reporter, citing the sale of South Korean medium-range missiles in the Arabian Peninsula for a total of six and a half billion euros. Finally, Russia. Putin and his war economy have revolutionized assembly lines. Every month, the Tsar produces “the number of attack missiles that in 2022 were made in a year”. All thanks to the autocracies, Di Feo underlines and comments, which “can ignore any rules and allow Moscow’s army to relentlessly hurl a hail of bombs against Ukraine”.