Forgive me ladies and gentlemen for placing a CNN article in this forum but The information written between the actual words in these articles today are telling a very interesting story, at lewst for me. These systems you don't just hand over to civilians rounded up off the streets, quick shipment (within days quoting from the article) and say we did it Joe!
What this says to me is mission creep. These need to be crewed by the previously mentioned expanding US presence for "monitoring" US weapons (anybody know what monitoring means these day?)
So why Patriots? They have a dismal track record in actual performance VS iranian drone attacks amd even piece meal Iraqi ancient Scuds. Russia is using Iranian drones alongside some of the most advanced ballistic and cruise missiles in the world today, combined with a seemingly endless stockpile of Soviet era war stock all of which Iran itself doesn't have access to, aside from its drones.
Why not some S300 that Ukraine itself says are effective? Well I think the answer is obvious.
I have a feeling the US is getting desperate with this move if they actually do it. How will Russia counter? Well they already know how but we don't. We can only hypothesize until we see it.
For me, Patriot looks to be a slow lumbering relatively fixed target begging for an anti radiation missile, it has a never been tested in a high intesity warzone such as this, other then Iraq which is not even comparable. it has faced fire again in a low intensity conflict and performed dismally defending against drone swarms.
Whats left after this? F16s which will gare just as well as MiG29s? There isn't much left the US can do short of entering the war and at that point we know what happens.
What do you guys think?
