While countries like Poland, the United States, Germany, the Baltic States, and the United Kingdom make headlines over their multi-billion dollar aid packages to Ukraine, one European country has quietly pledged fifteen percent of its military budget to support Ukraine: Luxembourg.
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— Ridn?_Viln? ?? #Rescue_Azovstal_Defenders (@ua_ridna_vilna) November 26, 2022
Today, the tiny European nation has made good on its promise by purchasing and then transferring six Primoco One 150 drones to the Ukrainian Army. The Czech-made Group III UAS has a maximum range of 2,000km, fifteen-hour endurance, a maximum 30kg payload, a top speed of 150 Km/hour, and weighs approximately 150kg. The system also includes an emergency parachute system for landings instead of a controlled crash. It can be equipped with military communication systems and an electro-optical reconnaissance system. It features a radio station from L3Harris and ANW2C datalinks from Persistent Systems. It also features a gimbal-mounted Epsilon 180 full HD electro-optical (EO)/middle wavelength infrared (MWIR) observation unit, SD thermal imaging channel in the MWIR band, and a laser rangefinder.
The purchase was made between November 14th and November 21st, and the transfer was carried out today.
Below is a capabilities video from Primoco showcasing the parachute system:
On February 28th, 2022, Luxembourg pledged to send anti-tank weapons, jeeps, and military tents to Ukraine. This shipment included 100 British-made NLAWS. By April 25th, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg declared that it would continue military aid, including a fifty million pound aid package. That aid was stepped up in June when the Grand Duchy announced that it would contribute fifteen percent of its defense budget which in 2019 was 400 million USD. Interestingly enough, their defense budget is only .64% of its 86.71 billion USD GDP.
Eight days ago, Luxembourg donated HMMWV in conjunction with two mobile repair stations for the U.S.-made military utility vehicles that were donated by the Come Back Alive Foundation. Nine days ago, Luxembourg donated several 3D Scanners to assist the Ukrainian government in discovering mass graves.
This relationship between Ukraine and Luxembourg is another indicator that the European Union has taken a whole-of-government approach to the defense of Ukraine from the February 24th, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
