Denmark will provide Ukraine with Harpoon anti-shipper missiles

The Danish government has undertaken to provide Ukraine with one Harpoon missile system to protect the coast. It will provide Odessa's defenders with sufficient coverage to threaten Russian forces in the northwest of the Black Sea.

In a Monday statement at the Pentagon US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin confirmed a message that the United States was looking for a way to deliver Ukraine's Harpoon system.

Harpoon is a 50-year-old supersonic anti-ship missile, which has been upgraded for years and is still in the equipment of many naval vessels worldwide. It is a maneuvering missile with a maximum speed of approximately 460 knots and a range of nearly 70 nautical miles. The Danish version is equipped with inertial guidance and GPS navigation and the Advanced Harpoon Weapons Control System (AHWCS) by Boeing. This upgrade gives him the opportunity to land attack as a complement to his primary anti-shipping role.

Harpoon has sufficient range to fly from Odessa to Russia's occupied Kherson region or from the Ukrainian-Romanian border to Russia's occupied Snake Island, which is the focal point of the last naval clashes in the Black Sea. The missile could be used to defend maritime shipping routes to and from Odessa, but the published range of the missile would not be sufficient to reach Crimea or the bridge in the Kerchen Strait from the territory currently in Ukrainian hands.

Harpoon is still produced on a full scale, and Boeing has orders for foreign sales by 2026. Boeing also produced a modernization kit for the United States Navy that improves missile guidance and increases Harpoon's range to 130 nautical miles, or about twice the original range.

Ukraine urgently needs to break the Russian blockade of its seaports. The Ukrainian grain silos are full and there will be no place to store the next harvest if existing stocks cannot be transported to the market. Meanwhile, countries heavily dependent on Ukrainian grain, such as Lebanon, Egypt and Yemen, are experiencing a sharp increase in prices. According to UN data, 41 of the world's least developed countries buy one third of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia.

Port lock is devastating. The war in Ukraine is wreaking havoc in the country and abroad. We are dealing with a serious food problem. Most of the deepest crises occur unfortunately in Africa.

Tomson Phiri, spokesman for the World Food Programme,

A number of plans were proposed to unlock Ukrainian ports, primarily sea escort missions organised by NATO or the UN. On Monday, the Lithuanian government proposed a third way: a sea escort organised by a "coal of willing states", including countries affected by the food crisis. UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss supported this plan shortly after its announcement and said the Royal Navy could participate in it.

The coalition could receive support from developing countries in the Middle East and Africa that have not supported either side but are interested in secure grain supply. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis gave Egypt as an example of a neutral state that has opportunities and reasons to participate in an escort mission. Egypt, with the strongest navy in the Middle East and Africa, is experiencing inflation above 13%, which is due, among other things, to rapidly rising grain prices.

Russian forces attacked many merchant ships in the first weeks of the invasion. Recent reports from the Ukrainian Navy confirm that Russian occupiers continue to threaten commercial shipping near Snake Island.

Source: Reuters