Agitating Fire: US to Train Ukrainian Troops on Patriot Missile at Oklahoma Base

By Staff, Agencies

Agitating the fire of the Russian- Ukrainian war, the US is to train about 100 Ukrainian troops who are to head to the United States as soon as next week to begin training on the Patriot missile defense system.

The Patriot surface-to-air guided missile can target aircraft, cruise missiles, and shorter-range ballistic missiles.

“The number of Ukrainians coming to Fort Sill in Oklahoma state is about the number it takes to operate one battery. They will also learn to maintain the Patriot batteries,” Pentagon spokesman Air Force General Pat Ryder said on Tuesday.

Kiev’s decision to take troops off the battlefield to train across the Atlantic in the US is unusual, although it has sent forces for short-term training at European bases for other more complex systems it has received, such as on the longer-range High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

Patriot training normally can take several months but “the longer those troops are off the line, they’re not actually engaged in combat”, Ryder said, so the training will be shortened.

The US pledged one Patriot battery in December as part of one of several large military assistance packages it has provided Ukraine in recent weeks. Last week Germany pledged an additional Patriot battery.

Each Patriot battery consists of a truck-mounted launching system with eight launchers that can hold up to four missile interceptors each, a ground radar, a control station and a generator. The US Army said it currently has 16 Patriot battalions.