USA Modernizes Ukrainian Patriot Air Defense Systems for Latest Anti-Missile Technology
The U.S. State Department has approved a possible sale of equipment and services to Ukraine for upgrading its Patriot air defense systems.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) reported on this.
The upgrade will primarily focus on modernizing the M901 launchers to the M903 standard, enabling them to use the latest missile types.
The total cost of this modernization is estimated at up to $105 million. The main contractors for the project will be RTX Corporation and Lockheed Martin.
To implement the agreement, a short-term deployment of additional U.S. government personnel and contractors to the European Command is planned to conduct training and coordination.
It is worth noting that this modernization will allow launchers to use the latest missile armaments available in the PAC-3 and PAC-3 MSE upgrade packages. In addition, the missile loadout can be adjusted based on missions and the types of targets to be intercepted. At the same time, M903 launchers equipped with PAC-3 and PAC-3 MSE missiles are already being used by Ukraine, as confirmed by official photographs of these systems.
Militarnyi previously reported that the Ukrainian Air Force had received new Patriot air defense systems transferred by Germany, most of which are used in the configuration with M901 launchers.
