They will become the best guardians of Ukrainian skies.
Patriot missiles will be delivered to kyiv, Washington confirmed on Wednesday, December 21, during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the United States.
This precious anti-aircraft system designed in the late 1980s and modernized several times is the most sophisticated ever delivered to Ukraine by the West since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
"It is a system that has a large identification range, that is to say that it can detect strikes from very far away and can manage several projectiles at the same time", explains General Dominique Trinquand, former head of the French military mission to the UN.
Pillars of the defense of NATO's eastern flank, these missiles are capable of intercepting all threats from the sky within a radius of 60 to 160 km.
Able to fly up to four times the speed of sound, they leave little chance to enemy planes and the most modern projectiles, even those flying at very high altitudes.
A heterogeneous defense to coordinate
Each mobile battery includes eight launchers, each containing four missiles.
Computers, electricity generators as well as a high-performance radar complete this rare armament from which a dozen allies of the United States, such as Japan or Israel, benefit.
The battery that will be delivered to Ukraine should come from the Polish or German arsenal.
"This new system will be used to plug the holes. Ukraine already has Soviet S-300 systems or Western medium-range systems, such as the German Iris-T or the French Crotale. With the Patriots, the Ukrainians will have a long-range capability," says Marc Chassillan, a consultant specializing in defense issues.
Faced with the Russian strategy consisting in saturating the defenses by bringing down a rain of projectiles, the Ukrainians will however have to carry out a difficult coordination between the various systems already in place.
"The Patriots will be used to destroy high-velocity missiles while the others will take care of drones. But this remains extremely complex coordination, which armies are not used to implementing because we generally have the means less heterogeneous", indicates Dominique Trinquand.
A billion dollar value
However, this new weaponry, as sophisticated as it is, should not change the balance of power on the ground.
With this single battery, Ukraine will only be able to sanctuary a few hundred square kilometers of its territory.
The capital kyiv, the center of power and the most populous city in Ukraine, could benefit from its deployment.
An important safety device should accompany the installation of the battery, whose value is around one billion dollars.
>> To read: Should we fear a vast Russian offensive in Ukraine in the heart of winter?
Each US missile also costs several million, which should encourage the Ukrainians to properly triage targets before launching an interception.
"Downing a $50,000 drone with a million-dollar missile is not a good idea," said Mark Cancian, a former US Army colonel interviewed by online media Vox.
"Unless this drone targets a power plant and is about to cut off power to millions of people," says Marc Chassillan.
"The assignment of a system also depends on the value of the target that was supposed to be destroyed."
The system will not be operational immediately
Another downside, the deployment of this Patriot battery will take time.
Even if the Ukrainian soldiers have proven an astonishing ability to learn quickly and well the handling of Western weapons, the mastery of this sophisticated system which requires approximately 90 soldiers is not for tomorrow.
"In particular, Ukrainian surface-to-air gunners will have to be trained. Admittedly, they are already accustomed to this type of system, but they will still need several weeks or even months. To this is added training in the maintenance of this very sophisticated equipment. Even if this training has already begun, the system will only be operational in two or three months," says Marc Chassillan.
Probably too late to help kyiv face the cold war led by Vladimir Putin.
According to American officials, the training of troops from kyiv is already planned on the basis of Grafenwöhr, in Germany.
Poland, which has several sites equipped with Patriot, could also provide a training ground for Ukrainian specialists.
"Clash between Russia and the United States"
This upscaling of American military aid is also a message sent to Moscow and, to a lesser extent, to Tehran which, after its kamikaze drones, could supply ballistic missiles to Russia.
"Offering a system whose performance is far superior to what your ally and his adversary have is an eminently political decision," says Marc Chassillan.
After having hesitated for a long time to take this step for fear of provoking an escalation, Washington strongly reaffirms its unfailing support for Ukraine.
This Patriot battery is part of a new $1.8 billion tranche of military aid that will also include precision-guided bombs for Ukrainian fighter jets.
According to Dominique Trinquand, "beyond this new aid, Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington at a time when President Putin decided to bring together all defense officials to discuss the year 2023 is a way of showing that the confrontation is now really between Russia and the United States".
The summary of the
France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 app