Patriot: Raytheon announces delivery of five more battalions of American air defense systems to Ukraine
12 June, 2023 Illustration for the news. Patriot air defense system. Photo credits: AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski
Ukraine will receive additional American Patriot air defense systems. Gregory J. Hayes, chairman and chief executive officer of Raytheon Technologies Corporation, shared this in a comment to The Wall Street Journal.
The company plans to produce five more battalions of Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine by the end of 2024. Gregory Hayes noted that the company was very impressed with the effectiveness of the Patriot system, which, together with other air defense systems, helps to intercept almost 90% of Russian targets. According to him, Ukraine "adjusted the software of the Patriot air defense system so that it could track and destroy hypersonic missiles flying twice as fast as it was designed for".
Patriot air defense system launcher of the Netherlands.
Photo credits: NATO media library
The WSJ writes that Ukraine currently has at its disposal PAC-2 missiles, which use an explosive fragmentation warhead to hit an aerial target, and PAC-3 missiles, which destroy a missile or aircraft at high speed by a direct kinetic strike.
Patriot SAM launchers. Photo credits: U.S. Army
The United States has not officially announced plans to transfer additional Patriot systems to Ukraine.
However, the Ukrainian authorities called on other countries to join efforts for strengthening Ukrainian air defense by transferring such systems. Raytheon Technologies plans to significantly increase Patriot production to 12 systems per year. As previously reported, the latest military aid package from the US included additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems.
The Ukrainian servicemen master the Patriot air defense system in Germany.
February 2023. Photo credits: Federal Ministry of Defence
Patriot air defense systems and their components arrived in Ukraine from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. The systems were transferred to Ukraine to defend against Russian air attacks.
According to the Pentagon officials, Patriot systems have strengthened Ukraine's air defense, because they made it possible to shoot down, in particular, ballistic missiles and enemy aircraft aimed at both troops and civilian objects.
Self-propelled launchers of the Spanish Patriot air defense system, 2010
El Pais also reported that the Netherlands and Ukraine were pressuring Spain to transfer Patriot air defense systems to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.