SAMP-T (Illustrative photo: French Army)

France will provide Ukraine with an additional radar to the SAMP-T air defense system as a replacement while one of them is being repaired. This was announced by Catherine Vautrin, minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs, at a briefing in Kyiv, transmits Ukrinform.

"We are working on this issue, in particular on repairing the radar for SAMP-T, and we plan to provide a replacement radar while it is being repaired," the official said.

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According to her, given that the availability of radars for these air defense systems depends on the manufacturer's capabilities, Paris is focusing on repairing the radar that is available and generally on the systems already in use to carry out all necessary maintenance and repairs.

The minister also said that Paris is in contact and cooperating with industrialists, including MBDA, the manufacturer of SAMP-T, regarding missiles for the complexes.

For example, Vautrin noted that from 2024 to 2025, the company doubled its missile production, but France believes that it needs to produce even more: "And so we are working in this direction."

Earlier, in November 2025, the presidents of Ukraine and France Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron signed an agreement in in the field of defense cooperation. In particular, the French leader stated that it is possible to deploy new SAMP-Ts on Ukrainian territory as early as 2026.

REFERENCE.
SAMP-T is an air defense system developed by France and Italy as a European counterpart to the US Patriot missile system. It is stated that SAMP-T is capable of hitting ballistic missiles at a range of up to 25 kilometers and aerodynamic targets (cruise missiles, aircraft) at a range of up to 100 kilometers.