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At the end of a 10-week intensive course at a U. S. Army base. In the U. S. Department of Oklahoma, the Ukrainians necessarily conduct their own in preparation for the front.
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By Eric Schmitt
Several dozen Ukrainian infantrymen are completing their education on the Patriot missile formula and within weeks will be deployed to the war front, armed with America’s most complex floor air defense to help in the face of Russian missile attacks.
The Ukrainian soldiers, all experienced combat veterans talented in Russian-designed artillery systems, surprised their American instructors with how they temporarily mastered the complexities of operating and maintaining complicated Patriots, which can shoot down Russian ballistic missiles, unlike other Western systems. And it can succeed on much more remote targets.
Now, at the end of a custom-designed 10-week intensive course at this U. S. Army base, you will be able to take a 10-week intensive course. In the U. S. , Ukrainians are necessarily achieving their own training, U. S. instructors said. The U. S. military adapts and learns in real time in response to Russian movements in networks of force and the like. . goals at home.
In a cloudy, windswept educational camp, Ukrainians repeated the status quo of a Patriot battery: tracking radar, systems, generator and launch stations that can fire multiple missiles at once, like the one the U. S. agreed to donate in December. The exercise, completed in less than forty-five minutes, was halted before firing real missiles.
“Our assessment is that Ukrainian infantrymen are impressive and surely a quick test because of their extensive knowledge of air defense and enjoy in a combat zone,” the brigadier general said. Shane P. Morgan, the commander of Fort Sill, to reporters.
The U. S. military The U. S. has exercised, or is in the process of exercising, nearly 4,000 Ukrainian infantrymen remotely in Germany. Except for the Patriot system, Pentagon officials will train Ukrainians on American soil. Fort Sill, a former cavalry frontier post in southwestern Oklahoma, is where 5100 infantrymen a year from the United States and 18 other nations are reported to use and maintain the Patriot system.
Since their arrival in mid-January, Ukrainian academics have spent 10 hours a day, six days a week, training and doing classroom exercises, army officials said. The sessions are in English, with some translations.
In more informal exchanges, U. S. coaches say they are seeking recommendations from their Ukrainian students, who have fought Russian forces that Americans have yet to fight.
U. S. instructors said they needed to speed up introductory categories and move on to more complex concepts because Ukrainians were already familiar with Soviet-era systems, giving them a benchmark when running on a more automated platform like the Patriot.
“It’s a Patriot formation made at lightning speed; it’s pretty remarkable,” said Thomas Karako, who directs the missile defense assignment at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and has written extensively on the Patriot formula and training.
On Tuesday, for the first time, the army gave a bloodhound organization access to the education of 65 Ukrainian infantrymen selected through their commanders to learn how the Patriot system works. The Pentagon said in January that 90 to 100 Ukrainians would go through education, roughly the number of U. S. troops needed to operate a U. S. Army Patriot battery. The U. S. government, however, will send fewer forces, U. S. officials said.
The Pentagon imposed strict rules on the three-hour visit. It banned photos or videos of the and its participants, and banned interviews with Ukrainian infantrymen in fatigued gear who were just yards from journalists on the ground.
The restrictions reflect lingering considerations in the White House and Pentagon about stoking Russian anger over Western involvement in the war or triggering a wider conflict. At the same time, however, Biden’s management has insisted that the U. S. -based formation is unlikely to be able to do so. Officials reiterated Tuesday that the Patriot is a defensive system, an offensive weapon.
“The Patriot air defense formula does not, I repeat, pose any risk to Russia,” said Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U. S. Army forces. The U. S. Department of Health and Africa oversees the U. S. in Germany.
After completing at Fort Sill in the coming days, the Ukrainians will travel to Poland, where their Patriot formula will await them, U. S. officials said. The troops will then spend a few weeks with other Ukrainian infantrymen who have done similar education in Europe in a Patriot. battery donated through Germany and the Netherlands, officials said.
Once operational issues are resolved, the two Patriot batteries operated through the Ukrainians will be deployed to the war zone, most likely in April, officials said. France and Italy said they would send air defense systems to the Patriot.
Where and how the Patriot systems will be deployed will depend on the Ukrainian government, he said. Since Russian President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Moscow has unleashed a torrent of missiles and airstrikes against civilian and military targets.
Most likely, Ukrainian leaders will use the Patriots to protect high-priority targets, such as key parts of the country’s network of forces and other civilian infrastructure. These have been hit by Russian high-speed ballistic missiles.
The Patriot formula works very well in what the military calls a “layered defense” that includes other air defenses used to shoot down or thwart drones and fighter jets, as well as a variety of cruise and ballistic missiles, officials said. Its ability to counter weapons such as Russia’s Kinzhal hypersonic missile is still unknown.
Air defense experts have warned that they are opposed to viewing the Patriot as a silver bullet opposed to all threats. “A Patriot Battery Changes the Confrontation,” Mr. Karako “Thoroughly. “
President Biden’s resolution in December to send the Patriot ticket was a strong signal of deepening the U. S. military’s commitment to the Patriot ticket. Active-duty Patriot teams from the Pentagon are deployed for missions around the world, and experts say the U. S. is still in the U. S. to be deployed to Ukraine. UU. no has the kind of deep reserves of Patriot missiles for movement were available that possessed with ammunition such as artillery shells and rockets.
The Patriot is one of the most sought-after air defense systems in the U. S. arms market. The US used by Saudi and Emirati forces in Yemen and the NATO alliance in Europe.
The Patriot is also on the most expensive weapons formula the United States has provided to Ukraine, at a total cost of about $1. 1 billion: $400 million for the formula and $690 million for missiles.
A single interceptor missile costs about $4 million, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Each launcher costs about $10 million.
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