Each Patriot batteries typically consists of six to eight truck-mounted launching systems, each one outfitted with four launch canisters for a missile in each pod. (US Army)
EDITOR’S NOTE: This report was updated 12/21/22 at 8:48 pm ET to include comments from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to Congress.
WASHINGTON — The United States today unveiled plans to send Ukraine its first Patriot missile defense battery — a system Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said will “help strengthen our air defense significantly” — as part of a new weapons package valued at nearly $1.85 billion.
The weapons announcement was timed for Zelenskyy’s historic visit to Washington, his first international trip since Russia’s invasion. In a meeting with President Joe Biden, Zelenskyy called the Patriot the “strongest element” of the aid package and said it “is a very important step to create secure airspace for Ukraine.”
After that meeting, Zelenksyy made an impassioned address before Congress, saying that the high-dollar aid the US has given his country was “not charity, [but] an investment in global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.” But, he said, his nation needs more.
“We have artillery? Yes, thank you, we have it,” he said. “Is it enough? Honestly, not really.”
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In recent months, Zelenskyy has requested a variety of new capabilities including air defenses like the Patriot. While Washington has provided some of these weapons, Biden said today he cannot approve others, like some long-range fires, due in part to geopolitical issues that could jeopardize larger NATO interests or “break up” the European Union.
For today, though, the eyes of strategists were on the Patriot announcement and its contribution to a war with no end in sight.
“It’s important to put the Patriot battery in context. For air defense, there is no silver bullet,” a senior defense official told reporters. “Our goal is to help Ukraine strengthen a layered integrated approach to air defense that will include Ukraine’s own legacy capabilities, as well as NATO-standard system.”
The senior defense official said the Patriot battery will come out of the US stockpile but declined to detail where in the force it is being pulled from or when it would arrive in Ukraine. As for training, Ukrainian military forces will spend “several months” in a third country learning how to operate the system before they use it on their own soil.
“Once trained, they will go in with the battery to man it in Ukraine; it won’t be US personnel who are doing that. And nothing will change in that regard,” a senior administration official said Tuesday.
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While neither of the officials provided an exact timeline, each battery is typically operated by 90 US Army soldiers who spend nine months in operator training to learn how to use the system, a spokesperson from the Program Executive Office for Missile and Space told Breaking Defense last week.
As for the system itself, there are currently 60 Patriot firing batteries in the US inventory, the Army spokesperson said. Each one of those batteries typically consists of six to eight truck-mounted launching systems, each one outfitted with four launch canisters for a missile in each pod. The Patriot battery uses radar to detect and track targets, along with a control system, high-frequency antenna mast and power generators, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Project.
As rumors of a Patriot transfer swirled late last week, defense analysts told Breaking Defense that while the system could provide the Ukrainian military with a leap forward in air defense capability, they weren’t sure what impact one battery will make on the battlefield, beyond the defense of one key area.
“This is a political gesture of support,” Tom Karako, a missile defense expert with the CSIS, said at the time. “What we’re sending, which I believe is one battery, is not going to protect Ukrainian cities, plural. It’s going to protect one spot somewhere. … The defended area of what we’re sending is going to be rather limited.”
Additional details about the Patriot transfer could emerge over the coming months, but the senior defense official said the administration is unlikely to detail how many Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptors it will send to Ukraine due to “operational security reasons.”
In addition to the pending Patriot delivery, the new weapons package will include Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) for the first time, according to a State Department spokesperson. The JDAM is a guidance tail kit designed to convert unguided bombs into precision mentions.
The State Department spokesperson disclosed additional details about the $1.85 billion package today, noting that $1 billion from this pot will come from existing stockpiles, while the remaining $850 million is coming from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). Other weapons under these two umbrellas will also include ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 500 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds, 37 Cougar mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) Vehicles, and various other munitions and vehicles.
Since late February, the administration has incrementally rolled out Ukrainian security packages that now total $21.2 billion, according to Pentagon figures. However, it is not clear if the dollars will continue to flow, in part, because Republicans are set to take control of the House in early 2023, and some members have shown resistance to such large US investments into Ukrainian defense. Congress is considering nearly $50 billion in additional assistance for Ukraine as part of the fiscal 2023 Omnibus spending package.
Zelenskyy did not discuss this looming funding hurdle at the White House but said he is here to thank the US and reiterate Ukraine’s desire for continued military support.
“What’s going to happen after [the Patriot battery is] installed? After that, we will send another signal to President Biden that we would like to get more Patriots,” Zelenskyy quipped during the press conference.
As for how the war could end, in his speech to lawmakers Zelenskyy said he is interested in a 10-point peace plan. The Ukrainian president also used the opportunity to highlight the growing ties between Russia and Iran — a partnership that US officials are closely monitoring.
“We’ll do our best to protect ourselves if [Russians] attack us with Iranian drones and our people will have to go to bomb shelters on Christmas Eve,” he said. “Ukrainians will still sit down at the… table and cheer up each other.”
Just moments before he left the House chamber this evening, Zelenskyy presented House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., with a Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers fighting in Bakhmut.
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“We are also looking at what additional personal protective equipment we can provide to our folks, especially instructors and others who are routinely exposed to blast pressure,” said Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.
