U.S. Ambassador David Cornstein joined Minister of Defense Tibor BenkÅ‘ in announcing Hungary’s declaration of intent to conclude its largest-ever defense procurement from the United States the U.S. Embassy in Budapest announced Wednesday. NASAMS Air Defence System will overhaul and modernize Hungary’s air defense capabilities and allow it to transition away from its current legacy Soviet system. Hungary also has committed to working with the United States through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program to procure Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) produced by U.S. company Raytheon Technologies.
This purchase will provide a proven, best in the world air defense capability that will contribute to the security of Hungary and NATO. Between the Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sale portions of the deal, the purchase amounts to an approximate one billion dollar investment in the future of Hungary’s security. This procurement will further deepen the excellent security cooperation between our two countries. This, together with the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), completed in 2019, have been major achievements in recent years that improve the long-term security of both countries and the region.
The Government of Hungary has requested to buy sixty (60) AIM-120C-7/C-8 AMRAAMÂER missiles, and two (2) spare AIM-120C-7/C-8 AMRAAM-ER guidance sections. Also included are four (4) AMRAAM-ER training missiles (CATM-120C); missile containers; spare and repair parts; cryptographic and communication security devices; precision navigation equipment; software, site surveys; weapons system equipment and computer software support; and other related elements of logistical support. The sale is in support of Hungary’s acquisition of the NNASAMS air defense system and would provide a full range of protection from imminent hostile cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, rotary wing and fixed wing threats.
NASAMS (National/Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System) is a distributed and networked medium to long range air-defence system. NASAMS was the first surface-based application for the AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile). The system integrates US-built MPQ-64 Sentinel air defense radar and AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles with an indigenously developed Battle management C4I system called FDC, short for Fire Distribution Center. The FDC connected to a MPQ-64 radar forms an “Acquisition Radar and Control System” (ARCS). The missile has a horizontal range of up to 25 km. Other sources cite a range of ‘over 15 km’ but this depends on the missile version used.
