The German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will discuss the opportunity to pay Germany for Americans patriot Air defense systems for UkraineWhen he travels to Washington to meet US Defense Minister Pete Hegseth.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said that the United States would send a non -mentioned number of patriots to Ukraine and that the European Union would pay for it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked for more defensive skills, including Patriot systems and rockets, to ward off daily rocket and drone attacks from Russia.
Here you will find some important information about the Patriot:
What is the Patriot system?
The patriot, short for the phased array tracking radar for the Intercept on Target, is one of Raytheon Technologies RTX.N.
It is considered one of the most advanced air defense systems in the US arsenal and has been on duty since the 1980s.
A typical battery includes radar and control systems, a electricity unit, carrier and support vehicles. The system can intercept the interceptor aircraft, tactical ballistic rockets and cruise rockets depending on the interceptor used.
How does the patriot work?
The system has different functions depending on the type of interceptor used.
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The former PAC-2 interceptor uses an explosive head war head that detonates near a target, while the rocket family from PAC-3 uses more precisely more precise technology that hits the goal directly.
It is not clear what kind of Ukraine patriot systems were donated, but it is likely that Kyiv has at least some of the newer PAC 3-crit interceptors.
The system’s radar has a range of over 150 km (93 miles), said the organization of the North Atlantic Contract (NATO) in 2015.
Although the Patriot was originally not intended to intercept hyperschall weapons, and Raytheon has not yet confirmed whether this was able to do so, the United States confirmed in May 2023 that Ukraine had used it to shoot a Russian Kinzhal rocket that claims that it was hyper.
Since January 2015, the Patriot has intercepted more than 150 ballistic rockets in combat operations, said Raytheon on his website.
According to his website, Raytheon has built and delivered over 240 Patriot Fire Units.
According to Raytheon, these were shipped to 19 countries, including the USA, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
In January, Axios reported that the United States had transferred around 90 Patriot catchment leaders from Israel to Ukraine.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a newly produced single Patriot battery costs over 1 billion US dollars, including $ 400 million for the system and 690 million dollars for rockets in a battery.
Patriot Interceptors are estimated at around 4 million US dollars per rocket, says CSIS.
Why does Ukraine want more patriots?
Kyiv has consistently asked Western allies to protect more air defense to protect critical infrastructure and civilian areas from frequent Russian rockets and drone attacks.
Patriots are effective to intercept rockets and planes and are a costly way to shoot drones with a low budget.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian officials say that they are of crucial importance to defend the most important goals from Russia’s escalating long -term attacks.
Russia says it sees the patriots as a direct escalation. The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, said in May that the supply in Ukraine would delay the likelihood of peace.
–Reporting by Isabel Demetz and Jesus Calero; Processing of Matt Scuffham
