US to send Sea Sparrow anti-air missiles to Ukraine for first time

The upcoming military aid package of the US for Ukraine will for the first time include radar-guided Sea Sparrow anti-air missiles, which can be launched from the sea or on land to intercept aircraft or cruise missiles.

According to Politico, in a bit of battlefield innovation, the Ukrainian military has managed to tweak its existing Soviet-era BUK launchers to fire the Sea Sparrow, two people familiar with the matter said.

Up to this point, Taiwan has been the only country to operate the ground-launched version of the missiles, while the US and multiple allied navies use the ship-mounted version.