Ukraine has asked the United States to provide it with the American Patriot anti-missile defense system repeatedly "at every international conference, and in every engagement with the United States," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Koleva said earlier this month.
Last night, he and President Volodymyr Zelensky got what they wanted - ten months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Technicians repairing a launcher (photo: official website, Avihai Mosger)
American soldiers near the Patriot Battery in southern Turkey (Photo: Reuters)
Volodymyr Lazansky yesterday in Congress (Photo: Reuters)
The Patriot system, which is part of the new $1.9 billion aid package that the United States will provide to Ukraine, will, according to analysts, be a powerful addition to the Eastern European country's air defenses, but will not provide it with an immediate break from Russian missile and drone attacks.
The interceptor missiles of the Patriot system are They have a longer range of up to 75 km and are more accurate than the 300S missiles and the "Bok" system developed in the Soviet period.
They also intercept high-speed ballistic missiles that Russia is expected to use once it depletes its stockpile of subsonic cruise missiles.
However, "the ability to protect infrastructure and Kyiv against ballistic missiles is extremely important to the Ukrainians, but the system is still defensive. It does not provide new offensive capabilities for targets deep in Russia or the Crimean peninsula," Oleksiy Melnyk, a former officer in the Ukrainian Air Force, told " Financial Times".
Joe Biden and Zelensky in the White House, yesterday (Photo: Reuters)
Darkness in Kyiv after a Russian attack on electricity infrastructure (Photo: Reuters)
Remains of a UAV that crashed in Kiev (Photo: Reuters)
Rhetian developed the Patriot in the late 1970s as an anti-aircraft system and was deployed in Europe at the end of the Cold War.
The Patriot (Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept of Target) uses radar to detect particularly large incoming threats: ballistic missiles, advanced cruise missiles and aircraft.
She also carries her own interceptor missiles.
The batteries include a command center, a radar station to detect incoming threats and launchers.
Patriot batteries first proved themselves against the Russian Scud missiles used in the first Gulf War.
It was upgraded to be able to intercept Scud missiles fired by Iraq at Israel and American bases.
In the 2003 Iraq War, the Patriot was used again by the Americans.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also used the system to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles that were in the hands of Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Today, 18 countries use the Patriot system, and it is deployed for defensive purposes at American bases around the world.
Soldiers near the Patriot launcher battery, Israel (photo: official website, Avihai Seguer)
However, officials in the United States believe that the scourge will not reach the battlefield before spring.
In addition, the training regarding the operation of the system lasts several weeks, and this training is expected to be held on German soil.
The United States also sends only one battery with eight launchers, and to you it will only be able to protect one area in Ukraine.
Commentators also believe that Ukraine will not use the expensive system to intercept suicide drones from Russia that are launched en masse at Ukraine's power infrastructure.
Furthermore, a single Patriot interceptor costs $3 million - a hundred times more than Iran's Shahad 36 missile. "The meaning of the high cost per missile And the relatively low number of missiles in the battery is that the operators of the battery cannot fire at every target," said analysts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Missile attack on Kyiv in October (Photo: Reuters)
Moscow responded to the American decision to provide the Patriot system to Ukraine as a "provocation" and an expansion of the United States' involvement in Ukraine.
It stated that the system would be a "legitimate target" for missile attacks from its side.
The Ukrainian foreign minister criticized and said that he would like the United States to provide Ukraine with weapons that move "at the speed of an airplane" and not "at the speed of a tank."
But despite the reservations, the American decision to provide the Patriot system to Ukraine is, in the end, encouraging because it shows that Washington is committed to doing what it takes to help Ukraine defend itself, especially in light of Iranian involvement and the ammunition it supplies to Russia.
news
world news
Europe
Tags
patriot
Ukraine
Russia
United States
war
