Recently, a closed meeting of senior NATO officials was held in the German city of Dresden, at which Ukraine was represented by Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavlyuk, Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to BILD sources, the three-day meeting, which ended on August 29, brought together 35 senior military leaders from NATO countries, mostly from Europe. The delegation was hosted by the Inspector of the German Land Forces, Lieutenant General Alfons Mais. The event was attended by military leaders from countries such as the Netherlands, Estonia, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, Albania and Greece. Among the invitees was also the commander of the US Army in Europe and Africa, General Darryl A. Williams.
Particular attention at the meeting was paid to the demonstration of the latest models of German military equipment. However, the meeting itself and its content were not officially reported to the press, which emphasizes the closed nature of the event and the sensitivity of the issues discussed.
One of the most interesting displays was the German wheeled air defense system Skyranger, designed to combat drones. This system is equipped with a 30-mm automatic cannon capable of shooting down drones within a radius of up to 3 km, as well as four Stinger missiles that can hit targets at a distance of up to 9 km. The complex has already been ordered by several countries, including Austria, Hungary and Denmark. The estimated cost of one unit is 18 million euros.
The unmanned wheeled howitzer RCH-155 was also presented at the meeting. This powerful artillery complex has a range of up to 54 km and can fire even while moving at speeds of up to 30 km/h. The first batch of howitzers in the amount of 54 units will be delivered to Ukraine in 2025. The price of one such system is about 10 million euros.
After the demonstration of the equipment, Lieutenant General Alphonse Mais stressed the importance of countering new challenges, in particular the proliferation of drones on the battlefield. “When we were in Afghanistan, the Taliban did not have an air force. Now we see in Ukraine that the use of drones has made a huge leap forward. They are now omnipresent on the battlefield. That is why we must all confront this new threat from the air,” Mais said.
