The Defense Minister: Ukraine is critically short of PAK-3 missiles for air defense, but has the potential to produce anti-ballistic systems

Ukraine is critically short of PAK-3 missiles for air defense, but has the potential to independently produce anti-ballistic missile systems.

The Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said this at a meeting with journalists dedicated to the first month of work of the renewed Defense Ministry team.

"We also talked with the president about creating joint consortia with partners to produce anti-ballistic missiles faster. Ukraine has great potential to independently produce anti-ballistic complexes and missiles. We need a separate project for this — the mathematics there is complicated, it takes more time. But Ukraine must definitely develop its own projects," he emphasized.

On the protection of the sky and the transformation in the air defense system

According to Fedorov, the main focus in the first month was air defense. In order to quickly respond to the intensive shelling by the Russians, the “After Action Review” system was introduced.

Every time after a large-scale attack, teams from the Ministry of Defense and the Air Force gathered to analyze the attack: where the interceptors were located, where the “Shaheds” were shot down, what were the ballistic trajectories, how the “small” air defense works, what were the consequences of each attack.

An electronic system has already been implemented that quite effectively analyzes all attacks. The President holds a daily selector where they discuss the results of the analysis of the effectiveness of air defense and energy restoration.

On the appointment of Yelizarov and the formation of command in the "small" air defense system

The second direction of the transformation of the air defense is the appointment of Pavlo Yelizarov as deputy commander of the Air Force. According to Fedorov, the department decided to go asymmetrically and appoint a person from outside this system to the Air Force.

They have also already formed a command system for the "small" air defense, developed a concept for the systematic protection of the country from the "Shaheds" and the work of the "small" air defense, and have begun to implement it.

"The first two heads of the ʼsmallʼ air defense in the regions have already been appointed. We selected people who do not necessarily even have experience in air defense, but have worked with drones and understand modern warfare. The task is to create strong managers who will build the system," the minister emphasized.

It was also possible to build constructive cooperation between the heads of military administrations, the Air Force, and the new command. Each head of the Regional Military Administration was given the opportunity to analyze the effectiveness of the air defense of his region in real time.

Starlinks

The Ministry of Defense responded quickly to the problem of Russian drones with Starlink, managing to reach an agreement with Elon Musk and SpaceX to disable Russian terminals. This became important both for the protection of the civilian population and for strengthening the capabilities of the Armed Forces.

After the Russian terminals were disconnected, the number of streams for Russians decreased by 11 times, and Ukraine began to intercept radio broadcasts more often.

The Ministry is being restructured according to the war plan

The Ministry is moving from the role of a procurer to a manager. There is already a new structure that is adapted to the war plan and takes into account the best NATO standards. It will continue to change.

"This is an important fundamental story that will not yield results today. But the goal is for stories like Starlink or air defense to appear every day or every week," the minister added.

In the coming month, the department will switch to the OKR goal-setting system, has already started using data-driven management and transferring projects to JIRA.

Procurement

February was the month when the Ministry of Defense transferred the fewest FPV drones to the army, so it was necessary to intervene quickly. The Ministry of Defense began purchasing based on data: they analyzed the effectiveness of UAVs over recent months and determined what was needed for the first quarter.

"We started purchasing based on data so that there is no subjective influence and corruption risks. We want to purchase what really works and is effective. Next, we want to form a real need based on high-quality data and remove the zoo of ineffective solutions," Fedorov noted.

We also launched a "synchronization matrix" that will allow us to see the effectiveness of each unit and each drone.

Digitalization

The Ministry of Defense is working on developing a vertical of digital officers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who will be leaders of innovation in the army. The first digital officer has already been appointed. In each corps, each brigade there will be a digital officer who will implement innovations and changes.

We also continued to work with deferrals so that people donʼt have to stand in lines when they need to get them.

Domain of economic warfare

The Defense Ministry team is actively involved in the economic war. The task is to work on blocking the Russian shadow fleet and restricting oil processing in the Russian Federation. In these areas, the Defense Ministry is working with Ukrainian and international institutions, NGOs, and services.

On the creation of competence centers

The process of creating competence centers for all technologies has already been launched. It is very important to create one for each direction: for drones, separately for “Middle Strike”, “Deep Strike”, artillery, etc. The task of the centers is to constantly analyze what the next step is and win the technology war.

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