US President Joe Biden has approved the transfer of another battery of Patriot surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs) to Ukraine, senior White House and military officials have told The New York Times.
They said the decision was made last week after a series of summit meetings and debates over how to meet Ukraine’s immediate needs for stronger air defense without jeopardizing U.S. defense capabilities.
One NYT source clarified that this will be the second Patriot system Washington will hand over to Kyiv. At the moment, the battery is in Poland, where it has so far protected rotating forces of US troops. The system may be deployed to the front line of Ukraine in the next few days, the source said.
As the NYT reminds, Patriot is one of the most scarce systems in the US arsenal. The Pentagon does not disclose the number of such systems in service with the Army, but according to the source, only 14 Patriots are currently deployed worldwide. Pentagon demand for them and other air defense systems has been particularly high over the past year, including after the Hamas attack on Israel.
A Patriot battery consists of a propulsion system, radars, a missile guidance system, launchers, which can range from four to eight, an antenna-mast structure and interceptor missiles. The cost of one battery is about $1.1 billion, one missile about $4,000.
The US transferred the first Patriot system to Ukraine in December 2022. Germany also transferred several systems. However, negotiations on the delivery of additional systems with Ukraine’s other allies have not led to results, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on June 8 that Kyiv would soon receive new air defense systems from Western partners. Prior to that, he had repeatedly requested the transfer of such systems, noting that the country has only about 25% of the necessary number of air defense forces to protect itself from Russian missile strikes. In particular, Zelenskyy attributed the lack of air defense systems to the destruction of the Ukrainian energy system and the success of the Russian offensive.
