US to Begin Training Ukrainian Troops to Use Patriot Missile System in Oklahoma

US army officers stands in front a U.S. Patriot missile defense system at the Hatzor Airforce Base on March 8, 2018. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Around 100 Ukrainian troops are set to arrive in the United States as soon as next week to begin training on how to use the Patriot surface-to-air guided-missile defense system.

“I can confirm that training for Ukrainian forces on the Patriot air defense system will begin as soon as next week at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,” Pentagon Press Secretary and U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a Tuesday Pentagon press conference.

“The training will prepare approximately 90 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers to operate, maintain and sustain the defensive system over a training course expected to last several months.”

For months, the Ukrainian government has been requesting that the United States provide the Patriot air defense systems, which can target aircraft, cruise missiles, and short-range ballistic missiles.

Ukraine’s requests for Patriot air defense systems have come as Russian forces have targeted Ukraine’s power grid with missile strikes. In a recent visit to Washington D.C., Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “Russia is using winter as a weapon — freezing people, starving people, cutting them off from one another.”

U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) in the Oval Office at the White House on Dec. 21, 2022. Leah Millis/Reuters

Last month, the United States agreed to begin supplying Ukraine with Patriot air defense systems for the first time.

Once the Patriot missile systems can be fielded, Ryder said they “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.”

Enough Troops to Man a Patriot Battery

During the Pentagon press conference, Ryder explained that the U.S. side selected Fort Sill as the site to train the Ukrainian air defense troops because the U.S. Army base already runs the school that trains U.S. and allied forces to use the Patriot system.

Ryder also explained that the United States is training enough Ukrainian troops to man the single battery worth of Patriot air defense systems that the United States has agreed to provide to Ukraine. A single Patriot battery consists of a truck-mounted launching system with eight launchers that can hold up to four missile interceptors each, a ground radar, a control station, and a generator.

“A Patriot battery, by definition, takes about 90 folks to operate and maintain that system,” Ryder said. “So the numbers are commensurate with what one would expect, in terms of operating the Patriot battery that will be delivered to Ukraine.”

While Patriot training normally takes several months, Ryder said U.S. trainers do want to speed up the process for the Ukrainian trainees.

“The longer those troops are off the line, they’re not actually engaged in combat, and so trying to work with the Ukrainians to see what we can do to accelerate the training timeline,” Ryder said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to target and destroy the Patriot air defense systems that the United States plans to send to Ukraine.

“Of course, we’ll take them out, 100 percent!” Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 TV anchor Pavel Zarubin, Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS reported.

Putin said the Patriot missile defense system is “fairly outdated” and Russia will find an “antidote” for the air defense system.

“It is said that the Patriot systems may be sent to Ukraine. Let them do it; we will weed out the Patriots too,” Putin said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

From NTD News.