- Patriot missile systems cost up to $400 million without the missiles
- It is understood Ukraine had five before the attack.
- Each missile can cost up to $6 million.
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Dramatic aerial footage reportedly shows the moment two truck-mounted quad launchers for the US-made Patriot surface-to-air missile systems are destroyed.
A giant explosion followed the attack of a Russian Iskander hypersonic missile.
The Russians have called it the first video-confirmed destruction of the Patriot complex displayed by Ukraine. Each system is believed to cost $400 million, while the missiles can cost up to $6 million each.
The attack comes after Ukraine is believed to have deployed the Patriot to shoot down a succession of Russian warplanes in recent weeks.
If confirmed – and Russia initially claimed that Ukrainian S-300 complexes had been bombed – the attack would be a serious blow to Ukraine.
Giant explosion followed attack by Russian Iskander hypersonic missile
Patriots have been supplied to Ukraine by the United States, the Netherlands and Germany.
Ukraine only had five Patriot systems before this attack, and each battery, including missiles, cost around $1 billion each.
Ukraine only had five Patriot systems before this attack, and each battery, including the missiles, cost around $1 billion each.
The United States, the Netherlands and Germany have supplied patriots to Ukraine.
The attack occurred while the Patriot team was being moved close to the front line, apparently without air cover, near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, according to reports.
The Patriot has been key for Ukraine to defend major cities from incoming attacks, but also as an offensive weapon to shoot down Putin’s fighter jets.
The system proved effective against the Iskander hypersonic missile, but it was an Iskander that hit the Patriot complex and its support vehicles.
The Patriot has been key for Ukraine in defending major cities from incoming attacks, but also as an offensive weapon to blow Putin’s fighter jets out of the sky.
Each battery has five components: the missiles themselves, the missile launcher, a radar antenna, a control truck, and a propulsion truck.
The loyalist pro-war channel Military Informant called it “the first confirmation of the destruction of two American MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems.”
It appears that a Russian military drone had detected the Patriot movement and transmitted the data to enable clinical targeting of Iskander.
Russia’s state news agency TASS said three launchers may have been destroyed, but other sources reported two.
“The Iskander tactical missile system probably destroyed three launchers of the American-made Patriot system near Pokrovsk,” a source told TASS.
Each battery has five components: the missiles themselves, the missile launcher, a radar antenna, a control truck, and a propulsion truck.