European NATO members to buy 1,000 Patriot missiles to defend allies as Russia ramps up air assault on Ukraine

NATO announced on Wednesday its intention to facilitate the purchase of up to 1,000 Patriot missiles to enhance the defence capabilities of its allies amid heightened Russian air assaults on Ukraine.

The NATO support and procurement agency disclosed plans to assist a group of nations, including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Spain, in procuring Patriot missiles. These missiles are designed to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as enemy aircraft.

With an estimated contract value of around $5.5 billion, this purchase aims to enable allies to allocate more of their defence systems to support Ukraine. The agency noted that “other user nations are expected to benefit from the conditions of the contract” without providing further details.

“The consolidated multinational procurement, in the spirit of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), offers economies of scale and supports the expansion of production capacity for new GEM-T missiles to meet increasing demand”, NATO said in a statement.

Russia’s latest round of attacks began Friday with its largest single assault on Ukraine of the conflict, which has bogged down into a grinding winter war of attrition along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

About the Patriot

Manufactured by the US defence contractor Raytheon, the Patriot is in service with the US and allied countries including Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Poland, Sweden, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Romania, Spain, and Taiwan.

According to the US Army, the entire system includes a phased array radar, a control station, computers and generators. According to the US Army, the missile system requires about 90 soldiers to operate and maintain and needs three soldiers to fire it. It was first developed in the early ’60s to replace both the Nike Hercules and Hawk air defence missile systems.

The US Army named the program Surface-to-Air Missile, Development (SAM-D) and the first tests occurred in 1969 and 1970. Following several tests, the US Army activated its first Patriot missile battalion in May 1982.

The advanced Patriot system consists of a Patriot missile — it uses ground-based radar to survey, track and engage targets.

Besides the missile, the Patriot system launches missiles from the M901 launching station. According to howstuffworks.com, the stations include up to four launch canisters that can hold four different missiles, depending on the type. The launchers are about the size of a tractor-trailer rig. Each get its power from the electric power plant (EPP) vehicle.

The Patriot system also carries the AN/MPQ-53 phased-array radar that has a range of up to 100 km, the capacity to track up to 100 targets and can provide missile guidance data for up to nine missiles.

Service history

The Patriot system first saw action in the 1991 Gulf War to shoot down incoming Iraqi Scud or Al-Hussein Missiles launched at Israel and Saudi Arabia. The US Army, which was in charge of the Patriots, claimed an initial success rate of 80 per cent in Saudi Arabia and 50 per cent in Israel. Those claims were scaled back to 70 and 40 per cent.

The Patriot missile later saw combat in the United States’ 2003 invasion of Iraq. In subsequent years, the Patriot system has been used by several US allies. For instance, in 2014, Israel used its Patriot GEM+ missiles to destroy two Hamas drones, two Syrian drones, and a Syrian Su-24.

In the Yemeni Civil War, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates employed Patriot systems to intercept Houthi rockets, missiles, and drones.

As recently as November, Germany had announced that it had offered its own Patriot missiles to Poland, days after a missile landed just inside its borders.