The US is offering Poland to transfer part of its existing Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine in exchange for Washington supplying Poland with Israeli-made Iron Dome air defense systems
The US is offering Poland to transfer part of its existing Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine in exchange for Washington supplying Poland with Israeli-made Iron Dome air defense systems, Politico writes. https://t.co/qFPKEBVaDl
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) October 6, 2023
by one_and_equal
3 comments
Not an expert here but those who are: isn’t this a considerable downgrade?
This is bizarre, they have completely different uses.
Patriot is like 5-6mil per missile but if your target (manned aircraft systems) cost tens of millions it is worth the cost. Ukraine could use the range to threaten those pesky aircraft firing cruse missiles at them.
Iron Dome is around 150k per intercept, much more appropriate to counter all these low cost drones. Poland sees what is happening in Ukraine and having a cost effective counter to those short/med ranged threats is a becoming pretty important. Give up a portion of their long range capability to boost their short/medium range.
Both parties get an upgrade so it sounds like a win win to me! Iron Dome is some nice kit but Israel won’t sell it to just anyone (Ukraine included).