[1]CNN | 1/11/2023 | [2]Listen
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First on CNN: Ukrainians to start training on Patriot missiles in US as soon
as next week
By Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky, CNN
Updated: Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:56:16 GMT
Source: CNN
Ukrainian troops are set to begin training on the Patriot missile
system in the United States as soon as next week, the Pentagon
announced on Tuesday.
The training program will take place at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where
the US conducts its own training on operating and maintaining the
advanced air defense system. Fort Sill is one of the Army's four basic
training locations and home to the service's field artillery school,
which has been training service members for more than a century.
CNN first reported the news earlier on Tuesday, with two US officials
familiar with the matter saying the decision had been made to begin
training in the US.
During the war the US has trained Ukrainian troops in Europe, but the
decision to conduct patriot training on American soil could increase
tensions with Moscow further as Russia's President Vladimir Putin has
constantly warned western nations against further involvement in the
war.
The training process and eventual deployment of the defensive weapons
system, which had long been requested by Kyiv, will take months and
won't impact the course of the war in the short-term though once it's
completed it should provide better protection against Russian missile
attacks that have devastated the country's infrastructure.
On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that
90 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers would be arriving in Oklahoma for the
Patriot training as soon as next week. He was unable to give an exact
time frame for how long the training would take -- typically it takes
up to a year for US soldiers to be trained on it -- saying only that it
would last "several months."
"Once fielded, the Patriot... will contribute to Ukraine's air defense
capabilities, and provide another capability to the Ukrainian people to
defend themselves against Russia's ongoing aerial assaults," Ryder said
at Tuesday's press briefing.
Last week, he said the US was looking at a variety of options where to
conduct the Patriot missile training "to include potential training
here in the US, overseas, or a combination of both." Politico reported
in December that any US-based training would likely occur at Fort Sill.
The US announced it was sending Ukraine the Patriot missile system in
late December when the country's President Volodomyr Zelensky visited
Washington, DC, and met with President Joe Biden.
US initially refused to send patriots
CNN first reported that the advanced air defense system would be
provided, after months of denying the request due to the steep
logistical and training challenges deploying it. However, a senior
administration official told CNN last month that the "reality of what
is going on" in Ukraine ultimately pushed them to provide the system.
The US is providing one Patriot battery, which includes power
generating equipment, computers, an engagement control system and up to
eight launchers. The battery is operated by roughly 90 soldiers and
takes months to train up on.
Though the Patriot is broadly seen as one of the most advanced and
effective air defense systems, experts cautioned that it is "not a
game-changer" because of its limited range and the amount of time it
will take for Ukrainians to be able to utilize it.
"These systems don't pick up and move around the battlefield," retired
Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, former commander of US Army Europe,
previously told CNN. "You put them in place somewhere that defends your
most strategic target, like a city, like Kyiv. If anyone thinks this is
going to be a system that is spread across a 500-mile border between
Ukraine and Russia, they just don't know how the system operates."
Nevertheless, in the wake of the news that Ukraine would soon be
operating its own system, Russian officials warned of "unpredictable
consequences" in yet another threat of escalation.
"Earlier, many experts, including those overseas, questioned the
rationality of such a step which would lead to an escalation of the
conflict and increase the risk of directly dragging the US Army into
combat," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in
December.
The US is not alone in providing the advanced system to the Ukrainians;
Germany recently announced that it was sending Ukraine a second Patriot
missile system from its own inventory. On Tuesday, Ryder did not have
any details about how Germany intended to handle training on the
Patriot system it committed to sending Ukraine and whether Berlin would
wait for training to complete on the US system before sending its own.
He also confirmed that the previously announced combined arms training
program for Ukrainian battalions in Europe will also begin as early as
next week and "will not require a significant or any increase in terms
of US trainers" deploying to Europe.
Last week, the US announced its largest aid package to Ukraine since
the war began -- $2.85 billion worth of US equipment, including 50
Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 500 TOW anti-tank missiles and tens of
thousands of rounds of 25mm ammunition.
The new equipment heading to Ukraine is a "substantive" change in what
the US had previously provided, two senior US officials told CNN,
mirroring the evolving changes of Ukraine's military as the war nears
its one-year mark.
Ryder told reporters on Friday that the "international response" in
providing equipment and training will "afford Ukraine an opportunity to
change the equation on the battlefield and gain momentum, and defend
not only their own territory, but hopefully take back territory."
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