Why did the Russian president say that the "Patriot" is old and ineffective?

Washington recently announced providing its ally Kyiv with Patriot air defense missile systems, 300 days after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and many months after Kyiv demanded air defense systems that limit the threat of Russian aviation and long-range missiles that Moscow possesses.

Although Russia warned Washington many times of this step, and said that it would consider it a direct American intervention in the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised everyone two days ago by saying that the Patriot is "an old system that does not work like the Russian S-300 system." questionable about its effectiveness.

He continued, "Our opponents consider it a defensive weapon. Well, we will take that into account. There is always a counter (weapon). So, what these people are doing will not work, as it only prolongs the conflict." Is the Patriot system really old and ineffective?

Why did the Russian president make such a statement?

Military expert Walid Al-Essa says that President Putin's statement comes in the context of the debate of statements and psychological and verbal warfare between the two parties, and pointed out that the Patriot system's core actually dates back to 6 decades, but this does not mean that it is old because, like many types of weapons, it has modern models and generations. including the highly capable PAC-3 MSI.

Al-Issa added - to Al-Jazeera Net - that most of the weapons, whether American, Russian or others, sometimes go back to the beginning of their manufacture for several decades, but they are subject to modernization and development within the same model, such as the Russian MiGs, the American stealth, the Russian Sam systems or the American Patriot, so it is difficult to judge The system is old, going back to the date of manufacture of its first model.

The extent of the impact on the course of the war

Regarding the impact of the Patriot system on the course of the Ukrainian war, Al-Essa believes that helicopters or even warplanes are sensitive to the atmosphere covered by advanced air defense systems and even ground anti-aircraft or machine-gun weapons because they pose a threat to them, and therefore planes avoid - as possible - flying in the airspace in which the enemy possesses it. Anti-aircraft, no matter how advanced these aircraft are or have the characteristics of the ability to hide, camouflage, or fly at high altitudes, as there remains a certain risk level.

On the other hand, and speaking to the military expert, the Patriot’s effectiveness remains limited in the Ukraine war as a result of the country’s large geographical area, which is about 600,000 km, so it needs certain quantities of batteries so that we can say that it possesses an Iron Dome or actually prohibits its airspace in front of Russian warplanes, as well as To counter the "piercing" missiles that Moscow boasts about.

Kyiv has repeatedly called for air defense systems, including the Patriot, in order to be able to counter the repeated Russian (European) missile attacks.

He pointed out that, in addition to that, providing the United States with Patriot systems to Ukraine requires several months of transportation, training dozens of elements that each battery needs to operate it, and building the experience of these elements so that they can operate the systems with the required efficiency, and all of this may reflect the prolongation of the war unless it is reached. to settle something.

Patriot capabilities

The Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system manufactured by the American company "Raytheon" and designed to protect against attacking missiles and aircraft, as it hits and detonates them in the air before they reach their targets.

The "Patriot" surface-to-air missile system protects military installations and air bases from air attacks, and the basis of its work is long-term defense, and it can hit air targets at a range of 160 km, and ballistic missiles at a range of 75 km.

The Patriot missile was designed to intercept a number of hostile missiles and air threats, including ballistic missiles that could carry chemical, nuclear or biological warheads.

These are high-tech guided missiles that rely on their own ground-based radar system to detect and track the target, as the radar scans a circle with a diameter of 80 kilometers, and at this distance the attacking missile is not visible to the naked eye, and here the automatic system can launch a counter-missile at the attacking missile and detonate it. before it reaches its goal.

The radar in this system is able to detect 50 targets simultaneously, and within 9 seconds its signal reaches the control room, which assesses the danger and decides to launch missiles, operating at a height range of between 60 meters and 15 kilometers.

The Patriot "PAC-3 MSI" system can launch 16 missiles at once, each of which is 5 meters long and carries an explosive warhead weighing 73 kilograms.

Iqbal on the modern system

The Patriot system - which works according to US officials to secure the airspace of NATO countries - is located in Eastern Europe, including Romania and Poland, and the system is also found in other European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

Patriot systems have been sold to Taiwan, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Romania, South Korea, Jordan and Oman.

The "Patriot" replaced both the "Nike-Hercules" system for high and medium defense and the "MIM-23 Hawk" tactical medium defense system, in addition to its role as an anti-ballistic missile system "TBM". , which is his main task at the present time.

During the months of the war, Ukraine was provided with advanced air defense systems from the United States and European countries, but the "Patriot" is the most advanced and efficient, according to observers.