US considers sending another Patriot missile battery to Ukraine

WASHINGTON - The Biden administration is working to send an additional Patriot air defence battery to Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said, as the US and its allies scramble to meet the country’s demand for more air defences to repel

an intensified Russian assault.

The US is seeking to send a single battery along with radars, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

Ukraine’s European allies are also working on plans to send Kyiv additional air defence systems from their stocks, the people said. 

This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is visiting Kyiv, that his country needed two Patriot systems just for Kharkiv, the location of a new Russian offensive. 

Spokespeople for the White House National Security Council and Pentagon did not immediately comment. 

The Zelensky government has appealed to several allies for more of the US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion) Patriot batteries and other air defence systems.

The US announced in 2022 it was

sending one Patriot battery

and has kept up a steady supply of missiles to supply what’s believed to be two other systems in the country as well.

Germany committed in April

to send another Patriot system.

The Patriot is costly to make and maintain, and most of the dozens of systems in use are already spoken for.

That has provoked growing frustration from Ukrainian officials, who have argued that European allies especially ought to be able to spare some of the systems.

“I feel myself hitting the wall with my own head, although I’m a diplomat, and that means I have to dismantle the wall brick by brick,” Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Washington Post in April. “But since this kind of diplomacy doesn’t work, I feel like hitting the wall. I just don’t understand why it’s not happening.”

Earlier in 2024, Kyiv had asked allies to provide at least seven additional air defence systems, with only Germany so far responding to that plea.

Romania and Italy are among the European Union member states considering sending the capability to Ukraine, some of the people said.

Several others are looking to contribute financially to support the effort or with parts and missiles. 

In addition to the US, 16 other nations have Patriot systems, including a number of Nato members – Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Poland and Romania – and non-Nato nations, such as Japan, South Korea, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Other countries, including France and Italy, have comparable systems, such as the ground-to-air SAMP/T. 

A Patriot battery includes radars and control stations to identify, track and target enemy weapons, missile launchers and support vehicles.

The system’s missiles are manufactured by Lockheed Martin, while Raytheon Technologies makes the radar and ground control elements of the system.

The funds for a new Patriot system would likely come out of the US$61 billion assistance package recently approved by Congress. 

“Patriots and other sophisticated air defences – they do more than protect soldiers and save civilian lives,” Mr Blinken said in a speech in Kyiv on May 14. “They create umbrellas of safety under which Ukrainian workers and entrepreneurs can adapt, innovate, build, and attract more foreign investment.” 

“That is why we’re working relentlessly with allies and partners to procure more air defence, and to do it fast,” he said.

The US has been nudging allies to send Patriots to Ukraine as “a matter of utmost priority”, Mr Biden’s national security adviser, Mr Jake Sullivan, said on May 13.

“And beyond Patriots, we’re looking for other systems, as well, because we believe that there are a number of allies who have capabilities they could share and ways in which the United States could help them with their air defence needs as a backfill,” Mr Sullivan said.

Strengthening Ukraine’s air defences has been a priority for the White House since Congress passed the national security package. BLOOMBERG