Oleksiy Melnik: Ukrainian Operators Surprise Designers Of Patriot Air Defence Systems

The American systems have recieved a baptism of fire.

The AFU air force showed a video showing enemy targets destroyed by Patriot SAMs. he date below the three Russian helicopters is May 13, the day when Russian aviation was "falling down" in Bryansk Region.

Was the Patriot SAM really capable of destroying several Russian helicopters and aircraft then? Charter97.org spoke about this with the co-director of foreign policy and international security programs of the Razumkov Center, first assistant to the Ukrainian defense minister (2005-2008), and military expert Oleksiy Melnyk:

- We cannot rule out such a version, but it is more likely that they were Soviet-made complexes. We can only make assumptions. After all, firstly, the Ukrainian side adheres to the policy of not recognising attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation and therefore does not disclose any details. The information that we receive from the Russian side, that is, the demonstration of some debris, possibly elements of some Western-made missiles, it would be quite risky to draw any conclusions based on that. These fragments could have come from some other place.

- Russian propaganda has said many times that the Patriots are obsolete, and Putin has said that "dealing with them will be as easy as shelling peas". How have the US SAMs performed?

- If we use Putin's jargon, so far Patriot has been doing a pretty good job of shelling Kinzhals. It is probably not worth the time and effort to tell how much the data given by Russian propaganda on the losses of the Ukrainian side and the successes of theirs do not correspond to reality. But there are independent sources, such as ORYX, which do confirm that it is thanks to Patriot that the problem of ballistic missiles has been leveled, although not completely neutralized.

The Patriot complex is capable of doing what the Soviet-made complexes were incapable of doing - shoot down ballistic missiles. Besides, I have seen with my own eyes the wreckage of the Kinzhal, of the Iskander, which was shown in the centre of Kyiv. And the nature of the wreckage indicates that it did not fall to the ground, but was damaged in the air.

Therefore, the objective indicators are, all the same, in favour of the Patriot. Besides, as the foreign media noted, this was Patriot's first baptism of fire in modern conditions.

At the very least, the Ukrainian operators managed to squeeze the maximum out of it, something that even the designers themselves probably didn't expect.

15:40

Вітаю

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