The Biden administration is reportedly in the final stages of preparing to ship out the Patriot missile-defense system to Ukraine to aid in its war effort against Russia.
The Pentagon’s proposal is still awaiting the green light from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, after which it will go to President Biden’s desk for final approval. Two U.S. officials and a senior administration official told CNN that they anticipate the plans will be rubber-stamped without issue.
The advanced missile system has a suit of capabilities, including communications, command and control, radar surveillance, and missile guidance, all of which are expected to help Ukraine fend off enemy offensives. Ukraine has for months petitioned the U.S. for the defense system to help intercept ballistic and cruise missiles as it endures ongoing Russian assaults across major cities and towns.
An average Patriot battery has up to eight launchers, each of which holds four missiles. The system has the ability apprehend and track targets.
In November, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. was committed to sending the Patriot system to Ukraine to help repel Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion.
“We’re now very focused on air defense systems and not just us, many other countries,” Blinken told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “And we’re working to make sure that the Ukrainians get those systems as quickly as possible but also as effectively as possible, making sure that they are trained on them, making sure they have the ability to maintain them and all of that has to come together and it is. We have a very deliberate process established by the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Ramstein, Germany, that meets regularly to make sure that the Ukrainians are getting what they need, when they need it.”
The news of the impending U.S. missile defense system delivery to Ukraine comes after NATO partners Poland and Germany agreed in November to deploy Patriot missile launchers to harden the Polish-Ukraine border. Berlin volunteered to send them to Warsaw after a missile hit Polish territory.
Hysteria initially ensued after an Associated Press report claimed that “a senior U.S. intelligence official” said Russia launched the missile into Poland, which ultimately killed two people. Polish, U.S., and NATO officials later updated that the missiles were likely launched by the Ukrainian air-defense system rather than Russia, prompting the AP to fire the reporter who wrote the story.