US delivers anti-mortar radars to Ukraine
The US military has delivered three radars to Ukraine designed to detect incoming mortar fire, the Pentagon says, amid appeals from Kyiv to send weapons to help fight pro-Russian rebels.
The counter-mortar radar systems were flown to Ukraine in a C-17 cargo plane that accompanied US Vice President Joe Biden, who paid a visit to Kyiv on the first anniversary of protests that unleashed a year of upheaval.
A total of 20 counter-mortar radar systems were due to be delivered over the next several weeks, and Ukrainian troops would undergo training on the radars starting in mid-December, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said.
The radars detect incoming mortar rounds and then calculate the origin of the mortar fire.
The systems can be hooked up to mortar or artillery batteries which then return fire.
‘It will be up to the Ukrainians how, when and where they deploy these systems,’ Warren said.