The Ukrainian military is ahead of schedule for training on Patriot systems.
The Ukrainian military is mastering modern Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems under an accelerated program and will complete training in the United States in a few weeks.
Ukrainian Defense Attaché in the United States Borys Kremenetskyi informed the Voice of America Ukrainian Service about this. He told how Ukrainian defenders are trained.
“It’s about weeks, I can’t give an exact answer… A month has almost passed since they stayed. Usually, if you start teaching from scratch, the training period can take from several months to a year,” said the attaché.
In particular, Ukrainians arrived at the Fort Sill military base in the state of Oklahoma in mid-January. At the time, the Pentagon said that their training to work with a modern air defense system would last several months. However, according to Kremenetskyi, the terms were shortened thanks to the experience of the Ukrainian military.
“The program is really shortened compared to how other specialists are trained, and there is only one reason: we send for training those specialists who have experience in working with air defense systems. You know that our air defense is now quite successful in combating air attack means the enemy. The specialists we sent have experience working with air defense systems, of course, not Patriot, with other systems, but they know the basics of operation, the basics of air defense systems, that is, they do not need to be taught the basic elements,” the attache noted.
Kremenecki said that Ukrainians are trained at the military base, where all American specialists who service the Patriot systems, as well as specialists from the countries that receive these systems, undergo training.
The training program in Oklahoma provides that Ukrainians will not only quickly master the modern air defense system themselves, but will be ready to become instructors for other military personnel after returning home. Attaché did not name the exact number of Ukrainians undergoing training in the USA. However, he noted that there are enough specialists to work with Patriot in Ukraine, so the main issue is to provide more of these systems.
“This system will greatly enhance our air defense capabilities, especially in the fight against ballistic missiles. Therefore, it is a significant improvement in the capability of our air defense system. Of course, one system that we are getting is not enough. We are working on getting more, we are ready, we have specialists whom we are ready to send for further training. That is, the issue of obtaining additional systems. We are working with our partners to obtain them,” Kremenecki said.
Patriot complexes for Ukraine
As reported, the Ukrainian military has already arrived for training in the United States of America to undergo training on Patriot systems.
On January 17, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov announced that Ukrainian officers will be trained to work with the Patriot in 10 weeks instead of the standard course of 10 months
At that time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Ukraine would already receive three Patriot air defense systems. Work on new solutions to strengthen our air defense continues.
