What is the US’ Patriot missile system defending Ukraine?

Russia claims it destroyed a US-made Patriot missile defense system worth about $1.1 billion amid a torrid missile attack on Kiev last night.

The Patriot system, delivered to Ukraine last month by the US and its NATO allies, was actively used to defend the city.

Last night’s fiery barrage over Kiev has led to conflicting accounts of the damage, including claims by the Russian military that it destroyed the leading Patriot unit.

Nighttime video apparently capturing the moment a Russian-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missile wiped out the Patriot system on social media.

And the Russian Defense Ministry stated that it had successfully knocked out the Patriot, according to military news outlet Zvezda.

All told, Russian forces launched six Kinzhals, nuclear-ready ballistic missiles that can roll out at up to 10 times the speed of sound, during the night.

The salvo was one of the fiercest rocket attacks on the Ukrainian capital since the outbreak of war: a total of 18 rockets fired by Russia, along with 6 Shahed kamikaze drones, according to some reports.

But the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, says the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to intercept all six Kinzhals using the Patriot system, detonating the Russian missiles in the air.

Here’s what you need to know about the Patriot and how it got there:

Grainy security video circulating on the Telegram messaging app appears to show the moment a surface-to-air battery explodes after depleting all of its ammunition during the attacks

Air defense missiles hit targets over Kiev

Kyiv officials said the attack — the eighth on the capital this month — involved drones, cruise missiles and likely ballistic missiles launched “simultaneously from different directions.”

Explosion of a rocket launched by Russia in the sky over Kiev this morning

What is the Patriot missile system?

The MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air (SAM) missile defense system takes its name from the advanced Raytheon-made AN/MPQ-53 phased-array radar system that forms the core of the targeting system. (The abbreviation Patriot stands for “Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target.”)

The Patriot is a mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) unit, manufactured by US defense contractor Raytheon, that consists of this robust radar array, one control station, a power generator, missile launch stations and a small fleet of support missiles. vehicles.

Depending on the need for missile interception, the system has different configurations.

One, the PAC-2 interceptor, launches a blast-fragmentation warhead, which radiates its damage in a ring. The newer PAC-3 missile uses more advanced hit-to-kill technology accurate enough to detonate on impact, rather than via a proximity sensor in the warhead.

Patriot systems consist of a robust phased array radar, control station, power generator, missile launch stations and a small fleet of support vehicles. Shown above is a Patriot surface-to-air missile system at Warsaw-Radom Airport in Radom on April 20, 2023

The Patriot comes in several configurations. The PAC-2 interceptor launches a blast-fragmentation warhead that spreads damage. Newer PAC-3 missiles use more advanced hit-to-kill technology, accurate enough to detonate without a proximity sensor in the warhead

The US European command first promised patriots to the Zelensky administration in March 2022, but the missile system did not arrive on Ukrainian soil until April 2023, most reports say.

How did the Patriot get to Ukraine?

The US European command announced its intention to return the Zelensky government on March 9, 2022, in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But the delivery did not become official until December 20, 2022, when the Biden administration pledged to include a Patriot system as part of a new $1.85 billion aid package to help Ukraine with its wartime defense.

The Patriot system did not arrive in Ukraine until April, when US NATO partners in the German government announced they had delivered a Patriot system to Ukraine.

A second Patriot battery was reported to have been delivered directly from the US on April 27, but neither the Pentagon nor the Biden administration have confirmed that the system has arrived at its destination.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov thanked the Allies in the US, Germany and the Netherlands in late April, but also did not publicly state how many Patriot missile systems had been delivered.

What’s the price tag?

A single, newly made Patriot defense system costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.1 billion, two-thirds the cost (about $690 million) for the missile battery itself with the rest of the price required for the system, support vehicles and radar ($400 million).