How much NASAMS can calculate Ukraine for 1.2 billion dollars: and why the prices of rockets can shock
In addition, before the Pentagon report, the American company Raytheon received a contract with a total value of 1.216 billion dollars for the production of anti-aircraft missile systems NASAMS for Ukraine. The number of the complexes themselves is not disclosed, and the only additional information is the term of the contract until November 28, 2025.
It also exists that the financing of the contract is made within the framework of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which ensures a new order for weapons from manufacturers for their transfer to Ukraine.
The big question is how many NASAMS will be produced under this contract. The fact is that on August 26, Raytheon already received an order for two NASAMS batteries for Ukraine within the contract for 182 million dollars. That is, under these conditions, one SAM costs 91 million dollars. And if we calculate from this time, then we can talk about 13 NASAMS.
But within USAI, the USA announced the transfer of eight NASAMS anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine, two of which, most likely under the August 26 contract, have already been transferred. If the $1.216 billion contract just covers the additional six NASAMS, then their cost will be $202 million per unit.
Is such a huge difference of 2.2 times possible – a good difficult question. It is possible to refer to the export values on NASAMS and raise the contract with Kuwait, which on October 6, 2022 received approval for the purchase of this SAM for 3 billion dollars. Under this contract, the country is to receive 7 AN/MPQ-64FI Sentinel radars and 63 missiles of each type AMRAAM-ER, AIM-120C-8, AIM-9X, as well as related services.
Again, such an exact number of complexes was not announced, and the configuration of NASAMS can be free, both for several launchers and for several radars. But we will conditionally assume that exactly seven air defense systems were purchased, because the Sentinel radar is the main element of the complex. In this case, NASAMS alone cost Kuwait $428 million.
The concurrent $1.216 billion contract with Raytheon for Ukraine is a contract between the US Department of Defense and the manufacturer, not the US and a foreign customer, which carries significant export contract price multipliers.
Could NASAMS be worth $91 million under the August contract, and $202 million a year from November. Quite possibly, because we can be talking not only about the complex itself, but also about its extremely important component – missiles. Perhaps the first contract did not provide for the production of rockets at all, because they were transferred by the allies as part of the aid.
At the same time, the cost of the AMRAAM-ER, AIM-120, and AIM-9X missiles themselves, which NASAMS uses, “bites.” To understand the export value of AIM-120C-8 for the Netherlands in 2020 was 39 million dollars for 16 missiles, 2.4 million for each. For the US Army, they are a little cheaper – about $1 million for an AIM-120D missile. The cost of AIM-9X for the domestic consumer is estimated at $0.4 million per unit. The cost of the AMRAAM-ER cannot be estimated with high accuracy, but it is likely to be greater than the AIM-120.
to take six NASAMS air defense systems, each of which has three launchers for six missiles, that is 108 missiles, which at a conditional cost of $1 million equals $108 million in ammunition. Which looks good for the difference between the notional cost of one NASAMS contract of $91 million in August and $202 million per unit in November.
At the same time, it is not excluded that we are still talking about 13 NASAMS, especially since the term of the contract is set until 2025, and the missiles for these air defense systems will be transferred under other contracts or within the scope of assistance.
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