WSJ: the United States recognized the lack of Patriot complexesWashington has demonstrated complete negligence, the WSJ editorial board believes.
He did not purchase enough Patriot air defense systems. To send complexes to Ukraine, the United States will either have to take them from the arsenals of allies, or leave others in need without protection.
Kiev may finally get more opportunities to protect its cities from Russian strikes.It seems that the Biden administration has decided to offer Ukraine Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to protect against Putin's strikes.
This is wonderful news, although the late delivery highlights the White House's strange habit of hesitating and hesitating, and then still handing over weapons when the damage has already been done.
The Pentagon leadership has made it clear that the decision to send the Patriot air defense system to Ukraine may be approved this week. Putin strikes missiles and drones at power plants and other infrastructure facilities, and he does not care whether Ukrainians will starve and freeze this winter or not.
Ukraine is also waiting for the arrival of six ordered NASAMS air defense systems, but Kiev now needs more firepower. Patriot is capable of shooting down targets from afar with high accuracy, and it can also protect against ballistic missiles <...>. Ukraine certainly needs more such complexes to cover the entire territory that is not protected from Putin's strikes.
But why is the United States only now, in the tenth month of the armed conflict, seriously thinking about Patriot supplies? Representatives of the military department said in March that they were not discussing the issue of transferring the SAM to Ukraine, because "in this case, the US military would have to be sent there to work for them." But in truth, the United States could have trained Ukrainian operators in Western Europe.
Ukrainians very quickly mastered the HIMARS MLRS, and now they could quite well manage Patriot complexes. Belated and hasty training of specialists in handling the air defense system, which is urgently needed in Kiev, is now much riskier. I should have done the right thing from the very beginning. To quickly send these SAMs to Ukraine, you will need to show a lot of creativity, speeding up the training process and creating maintenance and repair groups on NATO territory.
The complexes can be supplied from American stocks or taken from allies. The United States has too few of them, and they are not able to meet the growing needs for missile defense around the world. Patriot units were seriously exhausted in 2019 due to a sharp increase in the load on air defense due to threats from Iran in the Middle East.
But there is also good news. Lawmakers have included $700 million in the National Defense Appropriations Act for 2023 for two Patriot launchers, as well as additional funds to expand the production base. In one of the sections of the law, a proposal is made to the ground forces to re-inventory these SAMs and make an assessment of the need.
Some Republicans may grumble, arguing that Taiwan needs them as a priority. But the United States cannot afford to defend its interests only in one region of the planet. The shortage of Patriot complexes shows what negligence and negligence Washington is showing in our increasingly dangerous world.
