december 13, 2022, tuesday19:48 Espreso
The United States of America has developed a Patriot missile defense system plan for Ukraine, it is in the final stage of approval
The United States of America has developed a Patriot missile defense system plan for Ukraine, it is in the final stage of approval
This is reported by CNN .
Three US officials said the Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine, which could be announced as early as this week.
The plan is currently awaiting approval from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before it is sent to US President Joe Biden for his signature.
“Ukraine is calling on the US to send an advanced long-range air defense system that is highly effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles as it comes under a barrage of Russian missile and drone attacks that have destroyed key infrastructure around the world. The country. It will be the most effective large-scale defense weapon system range that will be sent to the country, and officials say it will help protect the airspace for NATO countries in Eastern Europe,” the agency writes.
The exact number of missile launchers is unknown, but in general, a typical Patriot battery has a radar that detects and tracks targets, computers, power equipment, a combat control station, and up to eight launchers, each containing four ready-to-fire missiles.
Officials assume that after sending the Patriot air defense systems, Ukrainians will be trained to use them at the US Army base in Germany.
- It will be recalled that last Friday the USA announced the allocation of another package of military aid to Ukraine in the amount of $275 million, which included missiles for the HIMARS systems, 80,000 155 mm caliber shells, anti-UAV means, HMMWV armored personnel carriers, about 150 electric generators and other equipment.
- The United States is preparing new announcements on allocating aid to Ukraine in terms of its resistance to Russian aggression.
Thank you USA! No doubt these will blunt Poopin’s fascist plans for Ukraine. This is a welcomed development considering Ukraine has become the tip of the spear for freedom and I doubt that will change much for the next few decades.
Great news for the defenders. It is one of the best pieces of kit there is in its field as I understand it. It will certainly save lives.
But one has to ask; it was known as far back as August 2021 that putler was going to unleash his Holocaust. Why the hell wasn’t it sent right away, along with other heavy weaponry?
What is the difference between the obligations of Nato members and the obligations of Budapest signatories?
Zero, I would say. Otherwise why would Ukraine have signed it?
I think the main reason was money, as Ukraine got a lot of badly needed money in return during the 1990’s.
Of course, from the 2022 perspective it feels like a tragedy and a stupid mistake.
But I do think that is too easy, as that money was needed to achieve macro-economic stability. Also, the Ukrainian army was waaaaay and waaaaay too big, and there were many problems: military installations that weren’t guarded and looted, soldiers that were not getting paid, highly advanced weapons and nukes not getting any maintenance and sometimes not even security.
I think that if Ukraine had nukes and strategic bombers, other bad things could have happened. Imagine a Donbas in which pro-Russians would have had captured a nuke. Or Yanukovich in control of nukes. I don’t think the EU would have dared to offer an association agreement then, and then no Maidan would have happened.
In the 1990’s several factions and oligarchs were fighting over control over Ukraine, people were poor and unhappy and government employees often weren’t paid. The huge army and nukes spread over the country were a huge risk as the country was unstable and chaotic.
The memorandum ensured at least some stability: soldiers were receiving their money and the government could function.
The country could have fallen apart if soldiers that weren’t paid for so long would have taken matters into their own hands (which would have been exploited by Russia).
Ukraine had a huge army and hundreds of thousands of poorly paid and poorly supplied soldiers in the 1990’s.
I think unintended, but still: the memorandum forced Ukraine to build an army which was smaller, using low tech equipment, but unintentionally an army that was way more effective than the Russian one.
I mean, you can better have 50 working tanks with trained staff than 10000 tanks with not enough fuel, broken parts and not enough educated tank drivers, if you know what I mean.
Even if Russia didn’t have a lot of corruption, the army was way too big and advanced compared to the economy that had to sustain it.
Ukraine was forced to get rid of all bombers and long range missiles and only had a few types of multirole jets left: but still they were more effective than the Russians with an air force which may be 40 times bigger in number of air frames.
Ukraine therefore was forced to change doctrine while the Russians still have the same old Soviet doctrine that relies solely on numbers but not quality.
Of course I really wished Ukraine still had nukes, but I do think we simply not know if that would have led to a situation that was much more favourable. Ukraine could have been a prosperous and free NATO country, but could just as well have turned into a North Korea with a crazy Yanukovich threatening to use nukes.
I do not think the Budapest Memorandum was the problem: the greatest tragedy is the signatories not sticking to it. If Obama and Cameron would have said: “Putin, if you try anything funny in Ukraine, you will have to fight the U.S.”, I think Putin would have chickened out and no single bullet would have been fired.
I think the problem with Budapest (besides Putin breaking it) was that the UK and USA considered it non-binding. I’m sure Ukraine didn’t look at it that way. Nukes are always a political football because the military would never ever give them up if you asked them. I think Ukraine said, ” You want us to give up our nukes when we live next door to 100 million fascists and nazis?
Patriot is a defensive system. Why wait until a war has lasted for over 9 months, causing thousands of deaths and immense destruction, before sending them to the innocent country that’s fighting for its survival? The crews could’ve been trained months ago already and the system in place for almost as long.