Air defence in all its forms remains the single greatest priority for Ukraine, a senior NATO military official has said, setting out the five capability areas that Kyiv has identified as most urgent.
On the sidelines of the NATO Defence Ministers’ meeting, the UK Defence Journal was told that the requirements were grounded in Ukraine’s own battlefield experience and reflected what the country believed it needed “to protect its population, sustain combat operations, regenerate combat power, and build future capability”.
At the top of the list, the official said, was air defence, with Ukraine needing “all forms of air defense”, from high-end interceptors to counter-drone guns, sensors, command and control systems and electronic warfare, because the threat was layered and, in the official’s words, “the defence must be” layered too.
Second came drones and long-range effectors, where the official stressed that the requirement was “not just for more drones” but for a full ecosystem around them, taking in interceptor drones, unmanned ground vehicles, long-range one-way attack systems, software, training, production and sustainment.
Third was artillery ammunition, with the fight remaining highly dependent on guns alongside what drones now brought, requiring extended-range artillery, rocket ammunition, air-to-ground munitions and energetics, the last of which the official said was often less visible than larger platforms but remained “essential”, covering mines, explosive propellants and repurposed energetics that underpin Ukrainian production. The fifth priority was electronic warfare, which the official described as now central to survivability and lethality, protecting forces, disrupting enemy drones and shaping the effectiveness of long-range strike.
The official framed the five priorities as an interconnected whole rather than a shopping list, warning that providing platforms without sustainment created only short-term effects, that capabilities without training had limited impact, and that if allies treated each requirement in isolation they would “miss the way modern combat power” is actually generated.yes
