According to Ukrinform, July will bring Ukraine new capabilities and strengthening of our air defense, including Partiot systems. In particular, in the context of a military aid package from the United States, which includes HAWK air defense missiles and HIMARS ammunition.
This was stated on the air of Ukrainian Radio by political scientist and nuclear missile expert Oleksandr Kochetkov.
He reminded that in addition to various modifications of Patriot systems, Ukrainian air defense needs other systems such as IRIS-T, which are more modern and cheaper to operate.
“The best one is the Ukrainian-made Kilchen system, which is comparable to Patriot in terms of its characteristics,” the expert noted and added that it is extremely difficult to launch production of the system in the face of constant shelling.
“In total, there are about 30 Patriot systems in the world that we could ask to transfer to Ukraine under certain conditions. Perhaps we will receive one or two systems by the end of the year. Most of them will be delivered next year,” Kochetkov said.
“Patriot is the most versatile system. If it is equipped with the latest modification of missiles, it will be able to shoot down missiles at a distance of up to 200 km. This is the PAC-2. And the PAC-3 and PAC-4 variants can even shoot down ballistic missiles.
This is a universal system that can shoot down any target. They are capable of covering both airfields and large cities. At the same time, this can be achieved with other air defense systems.
But we need more of them. IRIS-T is a shorter-range system (40-50 km), but it is capable of shooting down ballistic and cruise missiles and drones. Missiles for it are somewhat cheaper.
In addition, it is a more modern system than Patriot, of which there are a thousand in the world.
So it’s not just Patriot. There are other systems. The best one is the Ukrainian-made Kilchen complex, which is comparable to Patriot in terms of characteristics. It was developed in Dnipro, but as a result of Russian attacks, it is extremely difficult to deploy its production there now. It was better to do this before the war.
The practice of developing military equipment is to take one of the best analogs in the world and then improve it. In the case of the Kilchen complex, the Patriot in all its modifications was taken as an example so that it could intercept ballistic, cruise, and other types of missiles.
In terms of some range characteristics, such as the number of targets (more than 100 targets simultaneously according to the project), it was even better than Patriot,” the expert emphasized.
As reported by Ukrinform, on July 5, German Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Jaeger said that the third Patriot anti-aircraft missile system from Germany had arrived in Ukraine, and its Ukrainian crew had successfully completed training in Germany.
Tags: military aid russia ukraine war Ukraine
