The Pentagon said Tuesday that defense officials would deploy U.S. Patriot missile defense systems and Abram tanks to Ukrainian forces muc...
The Pentagon said Tuesday that defense officials would deploy U.S. Patriot missile defense systems and Abram tanks to Ukrainian forces much earlier than expected as troops wrap up an “aggressive” training schedule on American soil.
Over the last couple of months, about 65 Ukrainian troops learned how to operate, maintain and sustain the defensive system at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, which was initially supposed to last longer. Fort Sill officials told CNN that the Ukrainian troops included men and women ranging from 19 to 67 years old.
Brig. Gen. Shane Morgan, commanding general of the Army’s Fires Center of Excellence, said, according to CNN, that the Ukrainian soldiers were “hand-picked by their country” that quickly learned the complex equipment.
“Due to their extensive air defense knowledge and experience in a combat zone, it was easier — though it’s never easy — for them to grasp the Patriot System Operations and Maintenance concepts,” Morgan said. “Their higher education and their certification certainly aided their training — they are the best of the best in what they do in air defense for Ukraine.”
As reported by Reuters, the Patriot, an acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target, is an advanced U.S. air defense system built by Raytheon Technologies Corp with theater-wide surface-to-air missile defense. While the manufacturers designed the system to intercept aircraft and ballistic missiles, Reuters writes it could also strike down “kamikaze” drones Russian forces have frequently used to destroy Ukrainian critical infrastructure.
Raytheon reported Patriot systems had intercepted over 150 ballistic missiles in combat since 2015.
Meanwhile, Pentagon officials shifted original plans to provide Ukraine with 31 tanks of the M1A2 Abrams model but decided to refurbish existing M1A1 Abrams tanks to accelerate the delivery process by this fall.
But as the war between Russia and Ukraine heightens, the U.S. wants to accelerate delivering military-grade equipment across the Atlantic and into the possession of Ukrainian troops.
“The Pentagon is working as fast as they can,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday on MSNBC when asked about the tanks. “We’re working on that,” adding, “there’s some changes that you can make to the process to sort of speed that up.”
U.S. officials authorized speeding up the delivery of tanks and Patriots after Ukraine reportedly said it’s planning to launch more attacks in the spring against Russian forces. Once the soldiers finish their training in the coming days, Politico reported they would travel back to an undisclosed location in Europe to join other troops learning similar defense systems supplied by German and Dutch allies.
Officials told the outlet that those troops would return to the battlefield with the new Patriot equipment in the coming weeks.
NBC News reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin called the system outdated and said Russia would “knock down” the Patriots.
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