US official confirms Patriot missile system hit in Ukraine
The United States reveals that its Patriot missile system was indeed damaged in Ukraine, though it is unclear the extent of the damage done to the battery.
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In this image released by the US Department of Defense, German soldiers fire the Patriot weapons system at the NATO Missile Firing Installation, in Chania, Greece, on November. 8, 2017 (AP)
The Russian armed forces damaged a US-made Patriot air defense system in Ukraine due to missile barrages in and around Kiev early Tuesday, a US official told CNN.
The US claimed that it was still assessing to what degree the system was damaged by the Russian missiles, and that will determine whether the system would need to be pulled back or just repaired on the battlefield.
I counted 30 Patriot PAC-3 MSE launches here.
— Fennec_Radar (@RadarFennec) May 16, 2023
The FY2024 costs of these per missile is about $$5,275,000
That was $158,250,000 fired in about two minutes. And as we see, the battery or something else likely got blown up. So it failed in its mission. pic.twitter.com/9rwPnHkNGu
"A high-precision strike by the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system in the city of Kiev hit a US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system," Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday in a post on Telegram.
According to the Ministry, Russian air defense systems have intercepted seven Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles over the past day.
Two impacts were recorded last night Kiev pic.twitter.com/sQMxJjBSFM
— ZOKA (@200_zoka) May 16, 2023
According to the Ministry, Russian air defense systems have intercepted seven Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles over the past day.
In addition, it highlighted that Ukraine lost up to 215 soldiers in the Donetsk direction over the past 24 hours, adding that fighting in the western part of Bakhmut is ongoing.
Ukraine only has two Patriot air defense systems on its soil, one provided by the US and the other given jointly by Germany and the Netherlands. Just one of these two being out of service would greatly hinder Kiev's ability to defend itself as Russia takes the missile attack route in the war.
Dutch PM Mark Rutte said in January that the Netherlands intended to follow suit with the United States and Germany in sending a Patriot air defense system battery.
"We have the intention to join what you are doing with Germany on the Patriot project," Rutte said ahead of talks with President Joe Biden at the White House.
The Patriot system is a complex one that operates using several components, the most major of which are radars, a control station, generators, and antennas, as well as a launching station and interceptor missiles aimed at self-defense. They all cooperate and make it the behemoth it is, though it proved Tuesday to not be a match for Russia's barrages of missiles.
If one or more of the components happens to be damaged extensively, Ukraine might be forced to take the system offline and possibly even out of the country for the US to repair.
US officials believe the Russian military has been able to pick up on signals that are emitted from the Patriot, allowing them to target the system using the Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
Politico reported in early May that the US-made Patriot air defense systems and the Ukrainian forces the United States trained on the system arrived in Ukraine a week earlier after completing training in the state of Oklahoma.
The Patriot systems and Ukrainian forces completed training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and were then transported to Ukraine, the report said, citing a senior US Defense Department official.
Some 65 Ukrainian soldiers were undergoing training on how to operate the Patriot system. They were expected to continue preparations for operating the system in Europe once they finish training in the United States.
The soldiers, as reported by the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, recently completed their training on the Patriot air defense system.
"In addition, there are about 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers conducting training right now in Germany. Another 8,800, almost 9,000, have completed training and returned to Ukraine," Milley said.
