Ukraine wants to own 50 Patriot complexes

President Zelensky said Ukraine needs up to 50 Patriot air defense missile systems to protect cities and units on the front line.

In an interview published by the Wall Street Journal on June 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country wants the West to provide more weapons for the upcoming counter-offensive. "We want something concrete and we cannot wait for months," Mr. Zelensky said.

According to Mr. Zelensky, Ukraine needs more Patriot air defense missiles to protect cities and military units on the front line. Ukraine currently owns two Patriot complexes, but Mr. Zelensky wants up to 50 batteries because this is "the only system capable of intercepting some advanced Russian missiles."

Each complete Patriot battery consists of a command vehicle, a surveillance and guidance radar, a power generator, a communications station, and 6-8 launchers. According to estimates by the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), each Patriot battery costs about $1.1 billion.

It takes 50-60 soldiers to deploy the systems in a Patriot battery. Once deployed, the only part that requires human operation is the fire control station, which has a crew of three. However, Patriot still requires 20-30 people to operate and maintain it regularly.

Patriot launchers deployed by the US Army in Croatia in May 2021. Photo: US Army

President Zelensky also declared that Ukraine was ready to launch a counter-offensive campaign and "strongly believed that we would win", but said this could take a long time and come at a high cost.

Mr Zelensky also acknowledged that Russia had air superiority on the front line and warned that without air defences, "a large number of Ukrainian soldiers would die in the counterattack".

Russia has recently increased its use of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack Ukrainian targets. Western experts believe that this is Russia's attempt to neutralize Ukraine's air defense systems, especially the Patriot system, as well as to deplete the enemy's air defense ammunition by forcing them to continuously fire expensive missiles to counter UAVs or cheap missiles.

On May 16, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had destroyed the Patriot air defense system deployed by Ukraine in the capital Kiev. The Ukrainian military later urged the public "not to worry about the fate of the Patriot." A US official said the Patriot system in Kiev may have been damaged but not destroyed after the Russian attack.

Patriot is an air defense missile developed by the United States and has been in service with the US military since 1981. The Patriot PAC-2 variant can hit targets more than 60 miles away and fly higher than 100,000 feet, according to the US Missile Defense Agency.

The latest variant in the Patriot family is the PAC-3, which is capable of destroying airborne threats such as fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.