Ukraine’s ‘Patriot’ License Just Money Laundering Scheme Dressed Up as ‘Good Deal’ — Expert
Ukrainian Air Force’s F-16 fighter jets fly over a Patriot Air and Missile Defense System in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the production of Patriot missile interceptors in Ukraine would constitute another sign of unacceptable encroachment by NATO. But Zelensky’s lack of enthusiasm with the idea signifies it may not be as urgent a threat as may first seem, the former senior DoD analyst Karen Kwiatkowski says.“He would rather have finished interceptors or cash, anything else requires hard work and stability and time – none of which are available to him or the Ukrainian government,” Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.“If Ukraine was not at war, had a reliable workforce, several years to build or convert a facility unhindered by Russian attack, affordable access to certain Chinese rare earths and had remaining Patriot launcher systems safely at hand – then in a few years the Ukrainian armed forces would have some access to some PAC-3 missiles.”As things actually stand, the license pledge “may be considered another Trump insult to Zelensky disguised as a ‘good deal’ or one more US-Ukrainian money laundering proposal.”
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Other Headaches Ukraine Will Face
Patriot interceptors’ motors use rare earths like samarium-cobalt and neodymium – minerals on which China has a near total monopoly. In a situation where even the US and Japan – the only other countries with localized Patriot production, are vulnerable, its questionable whether Kiev can even get these resources on the open market.
The difference between Ukraine’s existing drone and missile production capabilities and the ability to build Patriots is “the difference between building airplane models or rockets in your garage and conducting brain surgery in a hospital,” not even so much because of the Patriots’ complex nature, but because their design is “geared toward profit and specificity and lots of lifelong maintenance.”
Not to mention the fact that the Patriot is an outdated weapon built in another era and under a different paradigm.“Meanwhile, any country faced with a Patriot-style missile defense systems has many choices, almost all of them cheap and effective,” Kwiatkowski summed up.
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