US: Patriot is not a panacea, and Russia mocks non-believers
For the second day, the debate continues whether Russia destroyed a Patriot battery in Ukraine or not. Two US officials officially confirmed that the Patriot in Ukraine “suffered damage”. Ukraine is silent on the matter, but as a country directly involved in the war, it is completely understandable that Ukrainian propaganda goes only in one informational direction, just as the propaganda from Russia also goes in one informational direction.
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Let us remind you of last year’s statements from the Ministry of Defense of Russia – if the USA allows the re-export of the Patriot to Ukraine and Kyiv receives American air defense systems, they automatically become a high-priority target of the Russian armed forces.
Such a statement is completely logical, and correct and shows that the MoD of Russia is aware of the Patriot threat and must counter it. Patriot is not really a panacea [in Greek mythology she is the goddess of healing and medicine, in urban colloquialism it is used as a medicine that cures everything]. The War Zone editor-in-chief Tyler Rogoway shares a similar opinion.
Mr. Rogoway says in his article that “The Patriot system isn’t magic, losses in Ukraine can be expected”. He even describes in a perfectly normal tone that not only the Patriot, every air defense system in the world [regardless of American, Russian, Israeli, French, and whatever in the original] is susceptible to attack, and this is the case.
Mr. Rogoway brings up something very important about the Patriot, which we at BulgarianMilitary.com have mentioned many times – the moment the battery is activated, not only does it try to intercept an enemy missile, but the battery’s radars emit a “massive electromagnetic signature.” This is read by enemy missiles and makes the battery completely vulnerable. So when soldiers decide to activate Patriot they are already at risk because at least they can be geo-located.
In this regard, the Kinzhal missile is one of the most suitable to seek out and destroy the Patriot. Russia therefore created this missile and this is its purpose.
Speaking of the Patriot’s radar, we should note something very important. It is the heart of the system. Without it, the battery becomes ineffective and unusable. So, the Pentagon claims that the battery was “damaged” could mean just that – Russia destroyed the launcher, which was the cause of this massive explosion. But did Russia destroy the radar? This question is of serious interest because the Pentagon also says that there will be attempts to restore the damaged battery.
It’s not just the Patriot’s own radar that’s a detection problem. System statics are also important. The Patriot Battery is not a mobile system as many people think. It deploys for a certain time and is deployed to another geo-location at the same time. Mr. Rogoway said in his commentary that “even the most agile configuration of the Patriot system is also quite static and takes time to move from one location to another.” One fact that we have reported many times as an indicator should never be ignored.
Therefore, the claims of some Ukrainian officers that the Patriot fired 30 missiles and then was quickly moved to another location speak only of pure propaganda. Especially considering that they [the officers] are much better experts than we are and understand very well how long it takes for a battery to deploy to another location.
Ever since its arrival, the Patriot has always been and always will be a target for Russia. As the other air defense systems – IRIS-T, NASAMS, and SAMP/T – are aimed at the Russian army. Just as the S-300 and S-400 air-defense systems, which are of the Patriot category, are the target of the Ukrainian troops.
We should note one more fact – the attack. From the released videos, it is clear that Russia knew about the Patriot’s location. That is why in the region Russian aviation organized a massive attack from several possible angles. I.e. layering a massive attack across all attack vectors against the Patriot.
At the same time, Russia confirmed the destruction of the American-supplied battery in Ukraine. In one of the rare cases since the beginning of the war, the Russian Ministry of Defense decided to take an ironic approach to the successfully completed mission.
On the official Twitter account of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, a collage of the Patriot system with dollars flying around it was released. A direct reference to the fact that before the air defense battery was destroyed, it fired about 30 missiles, which cost between $120 million and $150 million.
On the photo “is pasted a stamp” reading “wasted”. The Ministry of Defense published the following text with the photo: “…Doubters gonna doubt, doubt, doubt…” an indirect reference to the Ukrainian silence on the subject or the upcoming justifications.
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