Supply of Air defence systems as a promotional campaign for American arms
So, the intrigue with the deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine is over. The White House has confirmed the delivery of this, apparently, the best air defence system of the Western bloc to the Banderites as of today.
Earlier CNN had already announced that Joe Biden’s administration might approve the delivery of Patriot missile defence systems to Kiev, and they can be added to the air defence system of the Nazi regime in the very near future. By the way, indeed Western SAMs were handed over to the Banderites very quickly – the German IRIS-T SLM and the US-Norwegian NASAMS were dispatched within days after the decision was made.
The Spaniards also quickly handed over the American MIM-23 HAWK air defence systems manufactured in the 1950s to the AFU. However, all these systems practically have not changed the situation in any way, except that it is not old Soviet missiles of the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces that have hit the houses of Ukrainians, but American and German ones.
Meanwhile, most of the S-300 and Buk M-1, which constituted the air defense system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, have by now either been destroyed or broken down and cannot be restored, according to the Financial Times, citing sources in the AFU, due to the lack of spare parts for them. The publication also points to the nearly exhausted stock of ammunition for them.
But the Patriots cannot be supplied quickly for one simple reason: there are no trained Ukrainian personnel to maintain them. For one battery (and it is reported that exactly one battery will be sent) about 90 specialists are needed, whose training, according to experts, will take about a year. One can, of course, assume that the battery will be serviced by Americans themselves, as it was, for example, with the Hymars MLRS, but the possibility of controlling the Patriot battery, which will be transferred to Ukraine, is rejected by the Americans in the White House.
“We will train Ukrainians in a third country to operate this battery. After the training, they will go with the battery to Ukraine. It will not be American personnel,” Biden administration officials said.
Incidentally, this form of statement sort of rules out the possibility that the Pentagon will announce that the Ukrainian calculations have been secretly training ahead of time and are already capable of operating the SAMs. Such form of cover for the American calculations is quite probable and has been discussed by experts.
But is the Patriot capable of protecting Ukraine’s critical facilities from Russian missile and UAV kamikaze strikes if delivered?
The specifications of this system are as follows:
– Range of ballistic targets – up to 25 km, aerodynamic targets (aircraft, drones, cruise missiles) – up to 70 km;
– Minimum altitude of engaging – 0.06 km;
– Minimum engagement distance: 2 km; maximum 25 km;
– Maximum velocity of engaged targets – 2.2 thousand km/h;
– The number of escorted and engaged targets – 8;
– Number of missiles on the launcher – 4.
As we can see, this Anti-aircraft missile system will be useless against the Geranay-2 and most cruise missiles attacking at ultra-low altitude, i.e., going to the target at the altitude below 60 meters. It is also unlikely to be able to deal with our supersonic missiles. As a matter of fact it doesn’t have any advantages over the S-300 surface-to-air missiles of the first modifications deployed by the AFU, and it is inferior to them in some respects.
It should be taken into account that the Patriot, with the latest version RAS-3, was unable to protect the oil refinery in Saudi Arabia from the Hussite drone attacks. A single SAM battery is capable of protecting a single, not very large, object; moreover, it will need to be covered by short-range air defenses that can protect it from the same Geraniums or Lancets.
Actually, the maximum effect of this SAM system can be achieved only by an entire well-thought-out and echeloned air defense system, which cannot be built on the basis of a single battery or even a battalion. We do not even consider the question of economic justification of this rather expensive weapon.
In other words, the Patriot air defense system will in no way “make the weather” in the sky of the former Ukraine, but it will create considerable problems in ensuring its protection (obviously, it will become a priority target for the RF Armed Forces). Ukrainian sources report that the battery is likely to be deployed in western Ukraine in the safest possible location. If the Nazis’ interest in this matter is clear – the Soviet Bukis and S-300s are coming to an end, and the first battery will soon be followed by others – then the American profit is not obvious.
By supplying this complex to the Nazis, the US is putting at stake the reputation of the systems it sells around the world. It took enormous effort and millions of dollars in investments to hush up the Patriot failure in the Middle East, when the systems missed an attack on an oil refinery. In Ukraine, the risks would be incomparably greater. In addition, the Russian Armed Forces will get a closer look at this system, which is a staple of the US Armed Forces today. We can only assume that the Americans will try to develop an aggressive and noisy advertising campaign around the intended delivery of the system. A year from now they may well have no one or no reason to supply SAMs.
Boris Dzhereliyevsky, Segodnya.Ru
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