Ukraine hails French gift of radar as ‘cherry on the cake’

LIMOURS, France (AP) — Ukraine’s protection minister mentioned Wednesday that Ukrainian lives can be saved by a classy air-defense radar that France is supplying and which is highly effective sufficient to identify incoming missiles and exploding drones within the skies over all of Ukraine’s capital and its surrounding area.

The minister, Oleksii Reznikov, was so captivated with what he referred to as Ukraine’s new “digital eyes” that he rapidly coined a nickname for the Floor Grasp 200 radar — the “Grand Grasp.”

Talking by way of an interpreter at a handover ceremony for the radar along with his French counterpart, Reznikov described the French-made GM200 as a “very efficient” enchancment for Ukraine’s community of about 300 several types of air-defense radars.

Thales, the producer, says the radar detects and tracks rockets, artillery and mortar shells, missiles, plane, drones and different threats.

“Due to your help, Ukrainian lives can be saved,” the minister mentioned on the ceremony in Limours, the place Thales makes the gear.

“This radar would be the cherry on the cake,” he added. “That is why it will likely be referred to as ‘Grand Grasp.’”

The French protection minister, Sebastien Lecornu, mentioned the GM200’s vary of 250 kilometers (155 miles) would allow it to observe the skies over Kyiv and the Ukrainian capital’s surrounding area, though it wasn’t clear whether or not that is the place Ukrainian forces intend to deploy it.

The radar is transportable on a truck. Thales says it may be deployed in quarter-hour and be moved to a different location in 10 minutes, making it a more durable goal to hit.

The minister was gifted a small mannequin of the radar on the ceremony and brandished it with an enormous grin above his head.

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