The United States military transferred dozens of Patriot air defense interceptors from storage in Israel to Poland in order to deliver them to Ukraine, Axios reported on January 28, citing three sources with knowledge on the matter.
The Israeli military designation for the Patriot system is “Yahalom” [diamond in Hebrew]. Israeli PAC-2 systems have been upgraded to the GEM+ standard which has better performance against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or warplanes in complement to the PAC-3. Last April, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) officially decommissioned all of its Patriot air defense systems.
In June, the Financial Times reported that the U.S., Israel and Ukraine are in talks to provide Kiev forces with up to eight Patriot systems which were in service with the IAF.
Axios’ sources confirmed the talks. According to the sources, Israel dragged its feet for the last few months out of concern Russia would retaliate, perhaps by supplying advanced weapons to Iran.
One of the sources, a Ukrainian official, told the U.S. news site that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to take his calls on that issue for weeks. But in late September, Netanyahu finally approved the idea, according to an Israeli official.
The same Israeli official said that his country had informed Russia in advance of the move and stressed it was “only returning the Patriot system to the U.S.” and not supplying weapons to Ukraine.
According to Axios, a U.S. Air Force C-17 planes arrived at an air base in southern Israel in recent days and departed for Rzeszów in Eastern Poland.
The sources told the news site that the flight transferred roughly 90 patriot interceptors that can be used by Ukraine with its current Patriot systems. Additional equipment, like radars and other gear, will first be transferred to the U.S. to be refurbished.
A Patriot system costs around $1,1 billion. A single PAC-3 missile costs some $7 million and a PAC-2 missile could cost up to $4 million, depending on the version. Ukraine has already received multiple Patriot systems from the U.S., Germany and other allies. Most of these systems had been damaged or destroyed by the Russian military.
While the transfer of the systems will not have any impact on the battlefield in Ukraine, it will increase tensions between Russia and Israel.
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