In May 2023, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported a successful hit on the US-manufactured Patriot air defense system using a top-tier hypersonic missile. Washington provided vague statements regarding the incident and refrained from disclosing specific details.
The lack of any recent updates regarding the operational performance of the US-supplied Patriot air defense system in Ukraine strongly suggests significant damage inflicted by a Russian missile, rendering it absent from the battlefield. This perspective was emphasized by Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and a recognized expert in national security, during an interview with an online media outlet. Johnson pointed out the conspicuous absence of updates or information about the Patriot missile batteries that were previously sent to Ukraine, indicating their probable destruction or incapacitation, necessitating repairs and rendering them currently inactive on the battlefield.
The seasoned analyst explicitly referenced the May 2023 event where the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed a successful strike on the US-manufactured Patriot air defense system with the hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) Missile in Kyiv. Military experts emphasized that the Patriot system exhausted all 32 of its missiles attempting to intercept the incoming Russian projectile, resulting in an estimated cost of approximately $96 million for the US. Nonetheless, the Pentagon and other US officials offered vague commentary on the incident.
Larry Johnson indicated that, following this failure, the US began dispatching what he described as "second or third-tier equipment" to Ukraine. He suggested that certain Pentagon individuals have come to recognize that providing Ukraine with top-tier weaponry indefinitely would ultimately "diminish US military capability" and "antagonize the Russians." As a former CIA analyst, Johnson pointed out that as a consequence, Ukraine will be supplied with outdated Abrams tanks, sparking speculation about their survivability on the battlefield, with bookmakers already taking bets on how long they will endure.
