US President Joe Biden, during the visit of his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelensky to Washingtonwill announce a new package of military aidso that Ukraine can defend itself against Russian aggression, the White House said in a statement, quoted by the BBC.
According to British media, it is $2 Billion Aid Package to Include Patriot Air Defense Systems. American specialists will train the Ukrainian military to operate these systems in an unnamed third country.
The United States will continue to prioritize other forms of air defense support to Ukraine, including the transfer of NASAMS, HAWK systems, Stinger missiles and anti-drone equipment.
Germany’s Institute for the World Economy in Kiel estimates that the United States has provided Ukraine with $18.5 billion in military aid this year, more than all of Ukraine’s other allies combined.
When Ukraine received Patriot systems, it will be the most powerful and advanced anti-missile weapon the allies have delivered to Kiev.
They can be loaded with rockets of various modifications, including those that capable of hitting objects at a distance of up to 80 km and at an altitude of up to 20 km.
The system is designed to destroy targets flying at supersonic speeds and it can simultaneously track up to 125 targets and direct missiles at six of them.
One of the main advantages of the complex is the ability to shoot down not only aircraft and cruise missiles, but also ballistic missiles. It is this type of missiles that causes the greatest problems for the Air Defense Forces of Ukraine – they are very difficult to intercept. Such a missile does not fly above the earth’s surface, but rises along a ballistic trajectory upwards and from there attacks the target almost vertically at high speed.
According to the manufacturer of the Patriot the latest system is capable of hitting ballistic missiles at a height of up to 20 km.
“PATRIOT PAC-3 – the latest modification – can work against Iskander missiles (these are ballistic missiles), “Dagger” (missiles of hypersonic aviation), Hon “Zircon” (hypersonic anti-ship missiles). “From what we have been provided, this was the best decision at the moment,” Ukrainian reserve general Igor Romanenko, who as deputy chief of staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was in charge of air defense, told the BBC.
We remind you that until recently The United States has refrained from sending these systems to Ukraineas they feared an escalation of the conflict on the one hand and due to the complexity of training to work with them.
A change in the situation occurred after that Germany has decided to supply Poland with such systems after the incident in which a Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile went down in Poland and killed two workers at a drying mill near the Ukrainian border.
However, Poland has refused to accept these systems and he recommended sending them to Ukraine insteadbut Berlin reacted reluctantly and subsequently refused to officially send them to Kiev. This caused short-lived tension between Poland and Germanybut in the end Warsaw yielded, agreed to receive the systems and thanked Berlin.
Russia, for its part, announced that sending Patriot systems to Ukraine would be a new level of escalation and threatened to use ICBMs in response.
