Two Missiles Are Guaranteed to Shoot Down One Target – Military Expert on the Patriot Air Defense System

Military expert Oleg Starikov explained that protecting the skies over Ukraine requires not just more Patriot systems or other air defense systems, but also radars and a large number of missiles — and there is a long waiting list for all of that, Politeka reports.

He discussed this on his own channel.

According to the expert, the queue for Patriot air defense systems is enormous, with many buyers around the world, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Europe. Regarding Europe, he explains that Patriot systems there serve as the first tactical or operational-tactical echelon in the framework of U.S. missile defense, and also represent the American protective umbrella over the European theater.

“In the U.S., only about 500–600 Patriot missiles are produced annually. The cost is $2 million each. Two missiles are guaranteed to shoot down one target. What’s good about the Patriot? It doesn’t work against cruise missiles, but against ballistic ones, which follow a ballistic trajectory. I’m not an air defense specialist, but I roughly calculated that to more or less reliably protect Kyiv — such a large agglomeration — you need four to eight divisions. That’s quite a large number,” says Oleg Starikov.

However, the expert notes, the Patriot also has a drawback — you need to deploy additional radars to cover its blind spots. He cites Iran as an example: although it had effective air defense, it tried to save money and didn’t install additional radars to cover the full horizon. As a result, Israel and the U.S. were able to successfully strike the air defense systems first, and then the nuclear facilities.

“That’s why you can’t cut corners on air defense. You might spend a billion dollars, and then a small $100,000 missile flies in and destroys everything. Now the next question — is it possible to fully shield Ukraine with air defense systems? No, it’s not possible,” Oleg Starikov concludes.

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