No clarity around timeline of Canada’s supply of NASAMS to Ukraine – media

That’s according to the Canadian public broadcaster CBC News, Ukrinform reports.

It is noted that Canada announced its intention to donate the air defense system worth more than $300 million to Ukraine on January 10, 2023. "Nearly a year later, one of the two companies involved in building the NASAMS system says it does not have a contract for the Canadian donation," the report reads.

NASAMS systems are jointly built by the American company Raytheon and Norway’s Kongsberg. "A spokesperson for Kongsberg said in an email last week that the company does not have a contract with the U.S. for the Canadian donation," CBC News wrote.

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The plan is for Canada to pay the United States government the total cost of the system, and for the U.S. to enter into a foreign military sales agreement with Ukraine directly.

This was supposed to allow Canada to avoid the requirement to obtain U.S. permission to re-export NASAMS to Ukraine. "While Canada paid for the NASAMS system last March, it remains unclear exactly when it will get to Ukraine. It's not even clear if the Defence Department itself knows when that will happen. A spokesperson said the department was working with its U.S. partners to determine the timeline," the broadcaster notes.

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Publicly available documents from the US Department of Defense indicate that the United States signed an agreement with Raytheon to purchase NASAMS for Ukraine as early as November 2022. The deadline for delivery is November 2025. However, there is no official confirmation that Canada has reimbursed the U.S. for one of these systems. 

As reported, Canada donated munitions for NASAMS to Ukraine in April 2023. That delivery was also announced in January last year, along with a promise to deliver a new air defense system.