'Success story': US general says Americans now learning Patriot use from Ukraine
US military learns from Ukrainian forces to use Patriot effectively (photo: Getty Images)
US military personnel are learning from their Ukrainian counterparts how to effectively use Patriot air defense systems, United States European Command (EUCOM) commander General Christopher Cavoli said, journalist Colby Badhwar of The Insider reports.
"That has been in my mind as a success story. Frankly, I was just a little bit dubious in the beginning (that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would quickly master Patriot air defense systems – ed.). It's a complicated system, we trained guys for a long, long time to be able to operate it," Cavoli said while speaking to US senators.
According to him, Ukrainians trained their military to use complex systems very quickly and "took to it like a fish to water."
"And in fact, we learned from some of their employment techniques right now," the EUCOM commander added.
Patriot in Ukraine
In the first days of the conflict in the Middle East, Israel and its allies used about 800 Patriot missiles against Iran, while Ukraine has received only 600 such missiles during the entire war.
Also in February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that due to a critical shortage of PAC-3 interceptor missiles for Patriot systems, Ukrainian launchers remained empty in January, unable to repel Russian ballistic strikes.
In addition, he previously noted that Ukraine's Defense Forces have made a significant contribution to strengthening the protection of Ukrainian cities from Russian drone attacks. This level of defense is currently insufficient, especially in key and most vulnerable areas.
