According to a Tuesday CNN story, preparations to transfer Patriot missiles to Ukraine are being finalized by US Vice President Joe Biden’s administration. Since Russia has continued to attack Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets, Kiev has been demanding American air defense equipment.
According to the article, which cited three unnamed US officials, the plan is nearing completion and requires Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s permission before it can be delivered to Biden’s desk for his signing. An announcement may be made as early as this week, the officials told CNN, and Austin’s approval is anticipated.
Up to eight truck-mounted launchers, each storing four surface-to-air missiles, are part of a Patriot missile battery, together with a power unit, command center, radar unit, and antennas. The system, which can intercept incoming missiles or planes, was developed by US defense corporation Raytheon and has a range of up to 99 miles (160 km).
The Patriot system underwent extensive testing during the Gulf War, with the Pentagon reporting that during the six-week combat, it effectively intercepted 45 out of 47 Iraqi Scud missiles. The Patriot system, according to a 2017 New York Times story, was ineffectual when utilized by Saudi Arabia against Houthi missiles fired from Yemen, while the Israeli military later admitted that “one or probably none” of the Scuds were really intercepted.
How many Patriot systems the US will transfer to Ukraine is unknown. The missile batteries, according to CNN, will first be sent to a US Army installation in Grafenwoehr, Germany, where Ukrainian troops would receive training on how to operate them. The network added that Patriot platform training often lasts “several months.”
Although Kiev has specifically requested Patriot batteries since October, when Russia started regularly attacking Ukrainian military command and power grid targets in retaliation for Ukraine’s attacks on its infrastructure, including the Crimean Bridge, Kiev has already received short-range NASAMS anti-air systems from the US.
The Biden administration was “considering” this request, the Pentagon said late last month.
The deployment of Patriots and any accompanying NATO soldiers to Ukraine has drawn strong opposition from Moscow, with Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, saying that they would turn into “legitimate targets” for Russian forces.
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Too little too late, the conflict against the Ukrainian terror state will almost certainly be over by the time the Ukrainians are trained to operate the missiles if the Ukrainians are being trained to operate them which I doubt, if the missiles get to Ukraine they will almost certainly be operated by US operatives making themselves and the missiles juicy targets for Russian hypersonic missiles. At the rate that Western weapons are being destroyed and also sold on the black market the USA and the Western democracies won’t have anything left to defend themselves. Vietnam 2.0.