Exclusive: US finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine
CNN —The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine that could be announced as soon as this week, according to two US officials and a senior administration official.
Deployment concerns
A Patriot battery can need as many as 90 troops to operate and maintain it, and for months the US was reluctant to provide the complex system because sending forces into Ukraine to operate it is a non-starter for the Biden administration.But there were also concerns that deployment of the system would provoke Russia, or risk that a missile fired could end up hitting inside Russia, which could further escalate the conflict. According to officials, the urgent pleadings of Ukrainian leaders and the devastating destruction of the country’s civilian infrastructure, including loss of electricity and heat as winter drags on, ultimately overcame US reservations about supplying the Patriots.
Patriot cost
Over the years the Patriot system and missiles have been continually modified. The current interceptor missile for the Patriot system costs approximately $4m per round and the launchers cost about $10m each, CSIS reported in its July missile defence report. At that price, it’s not cost effective or optimal to use the Patriot to shoot down the far smaller and dramatically cheaper Iranian drones that Russia has been buying and using in Ukraine.“Firing a million-dollar missile at a $50,000 drone is a losing proposition,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps reserves colonel and senior adviser at CSIS.
Russia is attacking Ukraine unjustifiably they said but none dares to fire a single missile into Russia
That's how great he is
