The American authorities are looking for an opportunity to shorten the training period, CNN reportsWASHINGTON, December 22.
/tass/. The US Department of Defense will begin training Ukrainian servicemen in the very near future to manage the Patriot air defense system, it will take several months. This was announced to journalists on Wednesday by a high-ranking Pentagon representative, whose statements are quoted by CNN.
According to the representative of the defense department, the training will begin "very soon", the ministry is considering "several options" in which country it will take place. The official added that the US authorities are looking for an opportunity to shorten the training period "so that it takes as short a period of time as possible," but due to the complexity of the system, it "will take several months."
The Pentagon added that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will use Patriot to "intercept incoming missiles or aircraft that will pose a threat to their population, armed forces." "We expect it [the complex] to be used as a defensive system, which it is," a Defense Ministry spokesman said. At the same time, he stressed that it is not yet known when exactly the Patriot battery will be delivered to Ukraine.
As the representative of the defense department pointed out, "there is no panacea" in the field of air defense. The goal is to help Ukraine apply a "multi-level, integrated approach" in the field of air defense, he added. The official once again repeated Washington's position, according to which the United States will transfer Patriot to Ukraine, despite Russia's statements. So, on Tuesday, the coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, argued that the United States takes into account the risk of escalation in Ukraine due to military assistance to Kiev, but will not allow the Russian Federation to "dictate the terms of assistance <...> that [the United States] provides to Ukraine."
On Wednesday, the US authorities announced that they would allocate a new package of military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $1.85 billion, which for the first time will include Patriot complexes. 1 billion will be allocated through the State Department, 850 million - through the Pentagon. Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington against transferring such weapons to Ukraine. As stated, in particular, on December 14, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, Patriot will become a legitimate target of the Russian Armed Forces in the event of their delivery to Kiev.
Patriot - army mobile air defense systems - began to enter service in the United States in the 1980s. Manufactured by Raytheon Corporation, they are capable of hitting aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, and short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. One battery includes from five to eight mobile installations. Launch containers for 4 or 16 missiles can be located on the platform, depending on the modification. According to experts from the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies, Patriot will become "the most expensive weapon system supplied by the United States to Ukraine" at the moment. Each SAM costs about $1.1 billion: 400 million - launchers, command module and radar, about 700 million - interceptor missiles. One missile of the latest modification costs the Pentagon $4.1 million.
