Ukraine Gets Patriot Air Defense System Boost From NATO Allies

Norway will help fund the sending of another prized U.S.-made Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, Oslo has said, ahead of likely renewed Russian attacks on Ukraine’s vital infrastructure heading into the winter.

The Norwegian government will spend 1.4 billion kroner ($128 million), towards increasing Ukraine’s air defenses, Oslo said in a statement.

“Together with other countries, Norway is providing funding that will enable Romania to send a Patriot air defense system to Ukraine,’ said the country’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

Beefing up Kyiv’s air defenses is “a priority area for Norway, and I am very pleased that we can help Ukraine to acquire a new Patriot air defense system,” Støre added.

Russia consistently hammers Ukraine with drone and missile strikes, as well as using its jets to launch highly-destructive guided glide bomb attacks from outside of the grasp of Kyiv’s air defenses.

Kyiv has pleaded for Western-made air defense systems from its allies, including the Patriot system, which is considered the gold standard of air defense.

Stocks of interceptor missiles are also fired by air defense launchers to take out an incoming threat. In high demand across the world, it can take time to produce air defense missiles, despite many defense companies recently ramping up their manufacturing lines.

In April this year, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv “might run out of missiles, and the partners know it.”

Just days later, the Ukrainian president said Kyiv was not able to stop a Russian attack on a large power plant close to the capital because Ukraine “ran out of missiles.”

Russia is expected to renew its attacks on Ukrainian cities and the war-torn country’s critical infrastructure in the coming winter months.

“Russia’s attacks are continuing unabated, and Ukraine needs more air defense to protect the civilian population,” Støre said. “Greater air defense has been one of Ukraine’s most critical needs since the start of the war.”

U.S. President Joe Biden announced in July during a NATO summit that “in the coming months, the United States and partners intend to provide Ukraine with dozens of tactical air defense systems.” This included Patriots, but also German-made self-propelled Gepard anti-aircraft guns, NASAMS medium-range air defense systems, and variants of IRIS-T systems.

Ukraine is thought to have around five Patriot systems, although the details are murky, and it isn’t clear how many pledged Patriot systems have now arrived in the war-torn country. Countries like the U.S. and Germany have sent entire batteries, and other nations have pledged parts of the complex system.

A spokesperson for the Romanian Defense Ministry told the U.S.-backed Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty outlet in early October that Bucharest had delivered a Patriot system to Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Kyiv’s air force said parts of one of its Patriot systems in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region—which borders the eastern Donetsk where many of the fiercest clashes have taken place—were damaged in a Russian missile strike. The Patriot was still operational, a spokesperson said.