Damage solution: What older and less effective missiles Germany wants to send Ukraine, after Trump categorically refused Zelenski
A Patriot missile launcher of the Romanian Army launches a PAC-2 ATM missile during a military exercise at the Capu Midia polygon, near the Black Sea, on November 15, 2023. Photo: Daniel Mihailescu / AFP / Profimedia
Germany intends to send Ukraine older PAC-2 Patriot to restore ammunition stocks for Antierian defense, the Washington Post (WP) reported on Monday, citing a European diplomat.
The Patriot air defense system, manufactured in the US, is widely recognized for the detection, tracking and interception of aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles. Kiev remains without ammunition for Patriot missiles, against the background of intensifying drones and rockets of Russian forces.
At the beginning of May, the US granted Germany to transfer 100 Patriot anti-aircraft defense missiles to Ukraine. Under the protection of anonymity, a Kiev European diplomat said for the WP that Berlin intends to send older PAC-2 missiles, which are less effective in intercepting ballistic missiles than PAC-3 Patriot missiles.
A high official of Ukrainian intelligence services, which also spoke subject to anonymity, said that not even PAC-3 missiles can intercept Russian rockets, new medium-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) used in November last year to attack Dnipro.
The European diplomat added that the only other potentially capable air defense weapon capable of breaking ballistic missiles is an-Italian missile. But this fighting capability has not yet been proven, he said.
The more modern PAC-3 missiles are designed with precise “hit-to-kill” technology (“strike-for-a-down”), of which older PAC-2 missiles do not have. PAC-3 missiles are also smaller, lighter and more maneuverable than PAC-2 missiles. A standard Patriot Patriot launcher can load 16 PAC-3 missiles simultaneously, compared to only four PAC-2 missiles.
The assertion that the latest air defense package sent by Germany could contain less effective rockets comes after Ukraine suffered three consecutive late -scale attacks. Moscow bombed Kiev and other cities with ballistic and cruise missiles, while launching a record number of drones on Ukraine, notes The Kyiv Independent.
After the first attack, the spokesman of the Air Force, Yurii Ihnat, said that Russia has modernized its ballistic missiles with radar camouflage devices and evasion maneuvers, making them potentially difficult to intercepted even by Patriot systems.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski previously advanced the idea of buying 10 Patriot batteries directly from the US, but the White House leader Donald Trump has categorically rejected the request.
“We will find the money and pay for everything,” Zelenski said, in mid-April, in an interview with CBS News, emphasizing that Ukraine is ready to buy, not to request for free, this package of Patriot systems totaling $ 15 billion.
“You do not start a war against someone 20 times bigger than you and then you hope that people give you some missiles,” Trump said, at that time, after Zelenski's proposal.
The head of American diplomacy, Marco Rubio, said on May 20 that Washington is looking for other NATO member countries to provide additional patriot rocket.
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