Armed Forces Of Ukraine Have Changed Their Tactics For Using Patriot — Ihnat
Ukraine could have had enough Patriot missiles for several years, had a significant portion of interceptors not been used up in the Middle East. At the same time, combat experience has helped the Armed Forces of Ukraine change their tactics for deploying them.
Air Force Command communications department head Yurii Ihnat stated this on the RBC-Ukraine podcast, UATV English relays.
Ihnat explained that Ukrainian forces, over the course of the full-scale war, have changed their approaches to deploying the American systems. In particular, they’ve learned to use Patriot in various tactical situations and to use expensive interceptor missiles more economically.
One example is the ability to deploy the system not just from stationary positions, but also for ambushes, with subsequent relocation.
“For example, you can use Patriot not as a stationary system the way Americans keep it at airfields or bases, but make it, so to speak, a ‘roaming’ system: set it up in an ambush, shoot down five aircraft, and withdraw undamaged,” the Air Force spokesman explained.
Another difference concerns munition expenditure. According to Ihnat, Ukrainian crews have learned to use one missile against one target, whereas in the Middle East, in some cases up to eight interceptors were launched simultaneously.
He explained that Patriot has three operating modes: automatic, semi-automatic, and manual. In automatic mode, the system can fire a significant number of interceptors, and without appropriate combat experience, an entire package of missiles could be launched from the launcher at a single target all at once.
“Due to a lack of such experience, they could fire an entire package of interceptor missiles from the launcher at a single Shahed or a single ballistic missile,” Ihnat noted.
In his assessment, the number of missiles used in the Middle East could have provided Ukraine with several years of operation for these systems.
“That’s exactly why we’ve ended up in the crisis we’re in now, because what was expended in the Middle East would have lasted us several more years of combat operation with Patriot systems,” Ihnat summarized.
It was previously reported that Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated there’s progress on the issue of providing Ukraine with missiles for Patriot systems, but that the process is moving very slowly.
Read also: Missile Hits Landed In Very Crowded Places Where There Is No Military Facility Whatsoever — Zelenskyy On The Strike On Kyiv
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30 of October 2026
