In order to be able to dispose of them quickly, the Ukrainian president asks for what remains in European arsenals, promising to buy them back from the USA. But it would take years to produce that many
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he wants to order 25 Patriot air defense systems from the United States as Ukraine desperately tries to repel continued Russian airstrikes which are causing blackouts across the country. Zelensky acknowledged that Patriot systems are very expensive and that producing them, especially such a large batch, could take years. However, he went so far as to say that European countries could hand over their batteries to Ukraine and wait for replacement, stressing that its armed forces “cannot wait”.
Russian attacks and blackouts
To date, combined missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s power grid have coincided with the frenzied sKiev forces to counter the Russian advance on the battlefield aimed at conquering the eastern stronghold of Pokrovsk. To date, it is not known how many Patriot systems are present in Ukraine, but they have certainly been delivered from Germany. Overall, air defenses remain thin over large swathes of territory, making them vulnerable threats to heating and domestic water supplies just as winter sets in.
The new Russian offensive on Pokrovsk
Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure have become more effective; Russian Forces launch hundreds of drones, some equipped with cameras to improve targeting and which overcome Ukrainian air defenses especially in regions where protection is weakest. Furthermore, Russian tactics are now to target local power plants and substations instead of targeting the centralized national grid. And as expected, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy said that the Russian attacks caused increased damage to electricity infrastructure, resulting in planned blackouts in most regions of the countryurging Ukrainians to rationalize the use of electricity, especially in the morning and evening.
Russia and Ukraine are now locked in a battle for control of the city of Pokrovskin the eastern Donetsk region, where Zelensky says Russia has assembled 170,000 troops for a new offensive. According to reports collected by the Institute for the Study of War, although the last few days have seen a slowdown in fighting, according to some analysts close to Washington, Russian forces will accelerate the pace of their attacks in the coming dayswith the arrival of further troops in the city which the satellites have evidently been observing and following for days.
The Patriot missile system
In the meantime, NATO is coordinating regular deliveries of significant weapons packages; European allies and Canada are purchasing much of their equipment from the US, while the Trump administration is no longer directly supplying weapons to Ukraine. It is not known how long it will take the Raitheon factory to build a Patriot missile battery, but it is said to be at least a couple of years. Instead, it is known costwhich varies depending on version and configuration between 2 and 4 million dollars.
The “Mim-104” Patriot is the mobile surface-to-air interceptor missile system used predominantly by the United States Army and several allied states. The heart of the weapon system is the radar of the An-Mpq-53 known as “Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target”, which defines the name. The project was completed in the mid-1980s to replace the now obsolete Nike Hercules by integrating the performance of the Mim-23 Hawk into a single system. In addition to defending against air threats, the Patriot is the primary anti-ballistic missile system and with the technical update carried out in 2016 it is expected that the system will remain operational until 2040. Used in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and today Ukraine, where shot down several types of Russian aircraft Su-34 and Su-35, Mi-8 helicopters and Kinzhal ballistic missiles.
