U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s advisor Francesco Tatò yesterday, to ask the Italian government to send Samp-T defense systems to Ukraine. The decision should be taken before the Jan. 20 Ramstein Air Base meeting in Germany. To do so, the government should issue a government decree (the sixth one on aid to Ukraine).
Samp-T is an anti-aircraft system jointly developed by Italy and France and integrated into NATO defense, tested on the battleground in Turkiye. It is a powerful anti-aircraft system but It has a limited capacity against missiles. A Samp-T battery is composed of six modules and costs €500 million. It can be equipped with 8 to 30 missiles, each one costing €2 million.
Italy has five such batteries, one of which is a training battery, stationed in Mantua.
