United States Transfer of the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System to Ukraine in the Early Stages of a Deep Inelastic Warfare with Russian Forces

The US announced a new aid package to Ukraine on Tuesday, which included the “first-ever transfer to Ukraine of the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System, capable of bringing down cruise missiles, short range ballistic missiles, and aircraft at a significantly higher ceiling than previously provided air defense systems,” according to a State Department spokesperson. US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met at the White House on Wednesday.

The Pentagon’s plan still needs to be approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before it is sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. Three officials tell CNN that they expect it to be approved.

But all of these weapons are effective at soaking up Ukraine’s limited air defenses in the same way Russia has thrown untrained soldiers on the front line to soak up bullets and shells. In a race of attrition, the most cost-effective and capable countermeasure is the Patriot system, which Russia could potentially exhaust with a much cheaper campaign.

It is not clear how many missile launchers will be sent but a typical Patriot battery includes a radar set that detects and tracks targets, computers, power generating equipment, an engagement control station and up to eight launchers, each holding four ready to fire missiles.

As Ukraine gears up for a spring offensive against Russian forces, it was decided to speed up the delivery of tanks and Patriots, as Western countries have agreed to send.

The Defense Secretary’s Direct Effort to Transfer a Patriot Battery to Ukraine and the Goals of the United States in the fight against Iran and Iraq

The question of manpower was perhaps the biggest obstacle. About 90 positions are typically assigned to operate one missile battery. And the training needed is substantial; course lengths range from 13 weeks for a launching station operator to 53 weeks for a maintenance role, according to Army recruitment materials.

In recent years, the US has sent Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia and Iraq to counter threats posed by Iran and its proxies and to the Pacific region to deter North Korea.

“And we’re working to make sure that the Ukrainians get those systems as quickly as possible but also as effectively as possible, making sure that they are trained on them, making sure they have the ability to maintain them and all of that has to come together and it is. The process of making sure the Ukrainians are getting what they need is set in motion by the Secretary of Defense in Ramstein, Germany.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III could approve a directive as early as this week to transfer one Patriot battery already overseas to Ukraine, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Final approval would then rest with President Biden.

White House, Pentagon and State Department officials declined to comment on details of the transfer of a Patriot battery, which, if approved, would amount to one of the most sophisticated weapons the U.S. has provided Ukraine.

“It becomes a real humanitarian issue when you’re trying to deprive an entire country of its electrical grid and water and everything else,” said Jeffrey Edmonds, a 22-year Army veteran who now works as a Russia analyst at the Center for a New American Security. I think they see it as a necessity to help the people of Ukrainians in the fight.

Mr. Zelensky listed funding for weapons as one of the things he wanted in a speech to the Group of 7 nations.

Innocence, Power and Evil: Why We Shouldn’t Let the West See the Light of World War II. The Case of Russia

Keir Giles is an employee of Chatham House, an international affairs think tank in the UK. He is the author of a book. And What it Means for You.” The views are his own and they are reflected in this commentary. Read more opinion on CNN.

Russia and its supporters around the world will see this as a huge and dangerous escalation. That’s nonsense, but it’s highly effective nonsense.

Russia has accused the West of sending more sophisticated weapons toUkraine in order to make it look like they are involved in the war. That’s caused tension within NATO and the European Union. Croatia’s President Zoran Milanovic told reporters that supplying arms to Kyiv will only prolong the war and that it’s “mad” to expect Russia’s defeat. And Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Ukraine’s Western backers had “drifted into war.”

In doing so, the West has played along with the Kremlin’s pretense that it is not at war, only waging a “special military operation.” It protects Russia from consequences of its own aggression.

Russia’s most effective tool of deterrence remains nuclear threats. Loose talk from Russia about using nuclear weapons has died down a little recently, but a decade or more of driving home the message of inevitable nuclear response if Russia is cornered or humiliated has already had its effect.

Russia will continue to look for new weapons as it attempts to launch missiles at Ukraine. And Iran may not be the only country willing to supply Russia in the future.

Other aggressive powers around the world will be set a bad example by that. It says possession of nuclear weapons allows you to wage genocidal wars of destruction against your neighbors, because other nations won’t intervene.

If that message the US and the West don’t want other aggressive states to know is not the same, then they should use a much more assertive means of destablising Moscow.

He said the system won’t go after drones or smaller missiles. “Can it do that? Absolutely. But when you’re talking about knocking down a $20,000 drone, or a $100,000 ballistic missile that Russia buys, with a $3-5 million rocket, that doesn’t give you much of a return on the investment. What it can do it free up the low and medium systems to go after those kind of targets.”

Patriot arrays are used around the world by the U.S. Army and about a dozen U.S. allies. It was originally designed as an anti-aircraft system, and newer variants are used primarily to engage ballistic missiles.

Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, former commander of US Army Europe, told CNN that there is likely some unrealistic expectations about what a Patriot battery will be able to do for Ukraine. After the US agrees to provide it, it will be at least a year before troops can use it, Hertling said. It won’t be able to give blanket cover for the entire country.

According to a recent report from CSIS, each missile round of the Patriot comes in at around $4 million. Rounds that expensive likely won’t be used to shoot down every missile Russia launches toward Ukraine, Hertling said.

The system has been purchased by other US allies, including Israel, Germany, and Japan, and was sent to Poland in an effort to help them defend themselves against Russia as it invaded Ukraine on its border. The US military made it clear in March that the Patriot system was sent to Poland only to be used for defensive purposes and that it would not support any offensive operations.

“The Patriots are a defensive, anti-ballistic and anti-aircraft weapon system, with the emphasis on defensive,” Hertling said. “You don’t win wars with defensive capabilities. You win wars with offensive abilities.

The Ukrainian Air Defense Assistance in the Light of the Biden-Scholz Combined Action for Air Security, Counterattacks and Relative Strengthening

The new military assistance for Ukraine is part of a package that was announced amid a months-long Russian assault on the country’s critical infrastructure.

Biden affirmed the new commitment in a telephone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday. Germany will send new fighting vehicles, along with a missile battery to defend against Russian air attacks.

Zelenskyy had renewed those calls in recent weeks ahead of Wednesday’s visit to Washington, including in a phone call to Biden earlier this month. After the leader of the Ukrainian government pressed the G7 for more help last week, it was announced that the group would give Ukraine air defense systems and capabilities.

That will be able to defend a single city against some threats. But it’s not putting a bubble over Ukraine,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Training requirements mean that the system is unlikely to be operational in the winter or early spring.

Cancian said: “Ineffective operation caused by hasty training could hamper the system’s effectiveness; in a worst case scenario, Ukrainians might not be able to prevent Russians from destroying it.” That in turn could damage the political will to send future assistance to Ukraine, he said.

“If the Ukrainians had a year or two to assimilate the system, that wouldn’t be any problem. The problem is they don’t have a year or two. They want to do this in a couple weeks,” Cancian said.

Over the course of the conflict, Ukraine has been able to stop Russia from being able to achieve air superiority over its airspace.

The recent Russian airstrike barrages and ongoing assault on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure have turned up pressure on the U.S. and its allies to do more.

In addition to the Patriot battery, the new aid package announced Wednesday also includes additional HIMARS ammunition, mortars, artillery rounds and tens of thousands of GRAD rockets and tank ammunition.

U.S. air defense capability in Ukraine: Israel’s problem and its concern about a possible “game of attrition” by the United States

Kelly Greico said that the announcement was a sign that there was a real concern among U.S. officials about Ukranian air defense capability.

A power grid that reaches every part of the country is being defended. There are more sites to protect according to the analyst.

Greico of Stimson Center warned of the possibility that Russia is playing a game of attrition — using the cheap Iranian drones to get Ukraine to burn through its expensive missiles before unleashing its air force.

Greico said it was a terrible choice to face, between the need to protect civilians from the attacks and trying to resist the Russian war effort.

The US has provided other armored vehicles to Ukraine in the past, including Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and armored utility vehicles. The US also paid for the refurbishment of Soviet-era T-72 tanks.

Those systems had been at the top of Zelensky’s wish list because it will allow his military to target Russian missiles flying at a higher altitude than they were able to target previously.

On their phone call, Biden and Scholz “expressed their common determination to continue to provide the necessary financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine for as long as needed,” a joint statement read.

The Ukrainian troops training are men and women ranging in age from 19-67. They arrived in January and are going to compete. The schedule was aggressive and the Ukrainians were trained daily from 7 to 6 p.m.

The NPR State of Ukraine: Catching up with NPR’s latest whims during Ukraine’s Cold War with the United States

The International Monetary Fund releases its latest World Economic Outlook (Tuesday morning in Singapore, Monday night ET). The IMF has stressed that the Russia-Ukraine war is a big factor causing economic slowdown and recession in some countries.

A group of European Commission leaders are expected to be in Ukraine on Thursday and the European Union will hold a summit there the following day.

Ukraine’s military acknowledged the Russian takeover of Soledar, retreating from the eastern town after a tough battle. Russian forces continued their offensive around Bakhmut and other parts of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

New U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy arrived in Moscow, at a time of strong tensions between the two governments over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tracy was heckled by protesters when she went to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday to present her credentials.

The ambassadors of Russia were told to leave by the Baltic states after the Kremlin accused them of being involved in “Russophobia”.

You can read past recaps here. Here you can find more of NPR’s coverage for context and in-depth stories. Listen and subscribe to the NPR State of Ukraine show for updates throughout the day.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Reznikov: Fighter jets, fighter tanks and war-time budget constraints on Russian intelligence and military intelligence expenditures

KYIV — Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov says he’s optimistic Western allies will eventually supply his country with advanced fighter jets, including U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, and adds that Ukrainian forces are poised to start training on newly committed advanced battle tanks “as soon as possible.”

“My understanding is that there are training courses we can do in Europe,” Reznikov says. “It’s more convenient because we have to use a similar landscape and we have to have similar weather conditions.”

“For the Leopard tanks, for example, [training] normally could be half a year. He hopes it will be done in about one month or two months.

He says that it’s true that the F-16s are realistic because in the past Ukraine has secured other weapons that at first seem out of reach.

On Monday President Biden said that the US wouldn’t donate F-16s to Ukraine, and the German Chancellor told the newspaper Sunday that the question of combat aircraft doesn’t arise at all.

He knows that Western allies are scrutinizing the government of Ukraine. Ukrainian journalists recently reported that Reznikov’s own ministry was sometimes purchasing food and other supplies for troops at inflated prices.

Most of the defense ministry expenses were made public. Now most are classified for security reasons. He says transparency is a delicate issue during wartime, but he is working with parliament to change laws and make defense expenditures at least “semi-transparent.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/31/1152523328/ukraine-defense-minister-reznikov-fighter-jets-f16s

The US Patriot missile defense and Abrams tanks are going to Ukraine, as announced by an Army spokesman in the 6th Field Artillery Regiment

“It’s not a piece of cake, but I will do it,” he says. “Because my principle is zero tolerance with corruption. We must be a new Ukraine with the European standard, not the old-fashioned Soviet Ukraine that has a history of corruption.

US Patriot missile defense systems and Abram tanks are set to be deployed to Ukraine faster than originally planned, US defense officials said on Tuesday.

US trainers at Fort Sill, where the 65 Ukrainians have been training since January 15, were able to significantly speed up the timeline of the course because of the Ukrainians’ baseline knowledge of air defense systems, the officials said.

The Ukrainians’ day-to-day training in Oklahoma was overseen by the Army’s 3rd Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, Morgan said, adding that the Ukrainian troops were “hand-picked by their country” and the “best of the best in what they do.”

“I’m certain their actions these past months will save lives and alleviate suffering,” Col. Marty O’Donnell, the spokesman for US Army Europe and Africa, said of the Ukrainian troops on Tuesday. “What they did matters — it matters to Ukraine, and to the world.”

We are working on that. There’s some changes that you can make to the process, to sort of speed that up,” Kirby said on MSNBC. “The Pentagon is working as fast as they can, and they’ll have more to say on adjustments they’re making.”

The US still intends to send 31 M1-A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the same number as previously announced and the size of a complete Ukrainian tank battalion.