US Patriot missile delivery could be seen as ‘escalation’, Moscow says
The CNN report that Washington was considering supplying Kyiv with Patriot missiles triggered a warning from the Russian embassy in the United States on Wednesday, which spoke of “unpredictable consequences”. On Thursday, it was Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova who responded at a briefing in Moscow.
Many experts, including abroad, have questioned the rationality of such a measure, which would lead to an escalation of the conflict and increase the risk of drawing the American army directly into battle.
The Patriot anti-aircraft system that the United States should provide to Ukraine sends a strong message of support for Kyiv and would bolster the country’s anti-aircraft defenses at a time when Russia is bombing its infrastructure, but that equipment is no panacea.
The Patriots are “far from being the silver bullet” against the low-flying missiles and bombs dropped by drones that Russian forces are using to systematically attack Ukraine’s infrastructure, stresses Ian Williams of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) . Washington. The Patriot is especially useful for repelling high-flying ballistic missiles. Russia has not yet used it in Ukraine, but that could change if it buys it from Iran.
“Multi-layered surface-to-air defense helps deal with this type of complex air attack,” he says.
Manufactured by Raytheon, the MIM-104 Patriot is a medium-range surface-to-air missile system originally designed to intercept high-flying aircraft. It was modified in the 1980s to adapt to the new tactical ballistic missile threat. Patriots proved their effectiveness in the first Iraq War (1990-91) against Russian-made Scuds.
Highly mobile, each Patriot battery contains a command center, incoming threat detection radar, detection and jamming antennas, and launchers. All elements are mounted on trucks. Each launcher can be loaded with four PAC-2 missiles with a range of 160 kilometers or sixteen next-generation PAC-3 missiles, which have a range of just 40 kilometers but are more accurate thanks to an onboard radar.
The United States is only allowed to ship one or two batteries to Ukraine. Patriot training is long and the United States has few systems available. Washington could appeal to other countries that bought them to join the effort.
The problem is also choosing where to position them: a battery can defend a city or a large infrastructure, but not entire regions, Ian Williams points out. “We have to decide what we want to protect. Priorities have to be set. It will not defend the whole country,” he said.
Another factor to consider is the price. Each Patriot missile costs $3 million, three times more than the Nasam missiles currently in use.