File image.
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) will retire its American-made MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems within two months, according to an article published on April 30 on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) website.
“We are currently in the process of reducing the [number of] batteries until the entire system is closed,” said the head of the Aerial Defense Array’s 138th Battalion, which operates the Patriot.
The number of Patriot batteries in service with the IAF is unknown. The IDF designation for the Patriot weapon system is “Yahalom” [diamond in Hebrew]. Israeli PAC 2 systems have been upgraded to the GEM+ standard which has better performance against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or warplanes in complement to the PAC-3.
The Patriots will be replaced with “more advanced” air defense systems, the IAF said, without providing any further information.
“We realized that we need to move forward and improve our defense methods. The innovations in the [air defense] array bring a better operational and maintenance response,” the battalion commander said.
American-operated Patriot missile batteries were first deployed against Scud ballistic missiles fired from Iraq at Israel during the 1991 Gulf War. The system officially entered service with the IAF that same year, but only made its first interception in 2014, intercepting a Hamas drone launched from the Gaza Strip.
Over the following decade, the system intercepted only some ten targets, according to the IDF, including two fighter jets of the Syrian Arab Air Force that approached the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in 2014 and 2018.
The IDF didn’t say what will happen to the retired system, but the Kiev regime has for months now been asking for more Patriots to bolster Ukrainian air defenses in the face of increasing Russian drone and missile attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine needs 25 Patriots to cover the country, but Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he is for now focused on securing just seven batteries to protect Ukraine’s largest cities.
Last year, Ukraine received two Patriot batteries and two launchers from Germany and another battery from the United States with two additional launchers donated by the Netherlands. Most of these systems have already been damaged or destroyed by the Russian military.
Germany said on April 13 that it would provide Ukraine with one more Patriot system. However, Greece refused requests to supply any of its systems. Spain also refused, but said that it would supply additional missiles to Kiev forces.
Israel will not likely supply its retired systems to Ukraine directly. Nevertheless, it could do this indirectly by first selling the systems to the U.S., which recently approved a $61 billion military aid package to Ukraine, or any other ally of the Kiev regime who is willing to pay for them.
Still, such a move would be extremely dangerous for Israel as Russia will likely respond by bolstering the air defenses of the country’s main foes in the Middle East, Iran and Syria.
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that’ pretty smart …
replace it with the leggo dome
this announcement has peculiar timing as there is talk of icc arrest warrants on the highest ranking israeli officials. it sounds like a counter attack further decimating the reputation (or lack thereof) of the patriot sam batteries.
biden is america’s version of the puppet zelensky handing out american money and soon to be the lives of servicemen while taking away liberties for false causes and social reforms that are all related to zionism and their nwo.
israel we hardly knew yee
i beg dollar cuz only real god is money
if israeli war criminals don’t expect to be using patriots in the foreseeable future it must mean they have been forbidden by the u,s, from directly attacking iran. the axes of resistance defeated zionists.
about time russia hand over nukes to iran. the only language the rabid zionists understand is force.
yeah, like the ukrops you like to beg us for guns. fokking beggar. c’mon beg some more. now lick the balls of your gay goat and let me film it for pleasure. now go and pray to your goat god and s0ck it’s dyck you lesbian kike.
why? iran does not want nukes and has plenty of toys that can cause ‘shock and awe’ as already demonstrated.
nothing is dangerous for israel besids the iranians to some degree everyone else will give them a pass no matter what they do. interesting that israelis retire what ukraine desires. either they are bad or israel will get something better from the us but then this system would need to be ready to go to replace it.
what would that be? thaad or something totaly new?
israel is all about the money. they know they would never be paid for anythng they give to the ukraine, so they will just put them in storage for later use, and in the meantime get something that works better. good luck on that!
i would agree to you but if you look at the western leaders they are allmost as much invested into ukraine as they are in isreal. so for the powers behind the curtain ukraine has a special meaning whatever that is. if its just to use to hurt russia or some new khazaria plan who knows.
what has the us got that actually works effectively? with regards thaad, i remember back in march 2014, when they had the system on one of their ships (us). what happened next? it got taken out by a russian whicker basket and so many sailors on the uss donald duck (or was it cook) tried to resign. they did not like facing bastion, and having the ship shut down, courtesy iranian technology, which russia was using with good effect.
best way are to sell half of number of the systems to ukraine and other half of them to russia. at same price.
or they build into them a killswitch and sell the code of the killswitch to russia after selling all of them to europe to gift them to ukraine.
idf snipers shoot gaza children just like afu snipers shot donbass children ever since 2014.
questions is: who inspired who, or did the us inspire them both?
killing civilians is something that pro western militants do all the time it seems to be inspired by the nazi axis militias. after ww2 the usa took tons of books from the germans about propaganda and using minorities against their enemys. seems they adepted and improved the formula and are using it everywhere nowadays.
lmfao, they sold those to china years ago and now that they are done studying it and made their own cheap trash they shit talking.
cia: israel gave patriot technology to china (2013). “israel” what a great ally…
they don’t really need it.
maybe russia should give palestinians some weapons to defend their land against zionist occupation and genocide.
or just f0ck your mom straight up that lard ass.
you give them free, they sell it to you back. so jewish.
new york times, march 6, 1991. ” “after the war, us give israel 650 million offset costs gulf war” and you can read in the article “dine, issued his counter-offer: $500 million in cash and no charge for the patriot launchers.”
putin’s affinity with bibi, and russia’s with israel, is longstanding. israel has free rein in syria to fly right past russian air defenses and strike republican guard assets and personnel. russia’s increasing collaboration with iran, and iran’s provision of weaponry to russia is at cross purposes to the long standing russian jew reality.
from the bolshevik era on, despite russia’s effort to eradicate religion, russia and the jews have been thoroughly intertwined. and despite russia historically supporting syria and israel knocking the russian jets out of the sky, the connection continues. ukraine adds a new wrinkle. to the extent israel supports ukraine, that is a sign of russian decline.
russian leaders set themselves up for great embarrassment when they do deals with members of the axis of evil such as the zionist entity that harm members of the axis of resistance such as syria. going a fair way back now, gorbachev helped the u.s. with an arms embargo against the najibullah government then in the gulf war with info on the iraqi air defence systems. russia’s position is weaker for having to backtrack on a post-1991 history of collaboration.