US set to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine. Retired general explains the impact

CNN military analyst Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) explains why the Patriot missile system is a complex piece of military equipment, and why Ukrainian soldiers must learn how to use it without the involvement of Americans on the battlefield.
#cnn #News

57 comments

  1. These batteries in many other places just sit doing endless simulations. In this war they will actually get used. The field data from actual use will be valuable

    1. Keep poking the Russian 🐻. Remember pearl Harbor
      remember 911What makes all of your think for a second that the Russians will not have the power to attack us here on US soil we are nuclear weapons. Their nuclear weapons are much more sophisticated than ours From what I know they have over 2000 while we have 400. Correct me if I’m wrong. Also do you guys know what happens Here in the US once we have a nuclear EMF strike. Massive power outages. Our trucks won’t run. No trucks empty grocery stores. Are you guys ready to watch your child staff to death.? Have you ever heard of pick your battle this is not a battle we need to pick. We need to push our local politicians to Not get involved with the Ukraine. You guys think this is exciting and funny. It won’t be exciting at funny when you watch your mother father brother or sister starve to death and I’m not even talking about Illnesses that occur with radiation. In the meanwhile the Bidens will hide in the bunker until the smoke clears. Unless you all have a safe bunker to retrieve in for a year or 2 . I would suggest to push our local politicians to leave the Ukraine alone.

    2. Black Terminal – fat chance – these Patriots systems will be wiped out as soon as they are deployed. This is not Desert Storm in the 1990’s. The Patriot systems are backward nearly 40 year old systems.

    3. In Russia commanders/ generals have say for when to launch a nuke, there’s also one stating if things escalate he will nuke ukraine. If a patriot is sent 🇷🇺 will nuke Ukraine no doubt.

      So what will nato do?
      Sanction the number 1 grain exporter in the world/ number 2 oil exporter more than they already have? Causing us to go into more debt.
      Do nothing?
      Begin nuclear war with Russia?

  2. “Necessity is the mother of invention” – Plato – which aptly would apply in bucket loads to the Ukraine military and the civilians they seek to protect. My bet is that the Ukrainian military will surprise the world and very rapidly get their heads around the Patriot Missile system. As they simple must in order to survive. If I was NATO while Ukraine are in training, I’d position as many batteries of Patriots along Ukraines borders with western NATO Allies, ready to strike down missiles over Ukraine – justifying this need with the fact that Russia has caused miss fire of missiles into Poland. Maybe park a few thousand tanks on the borders as well just in case Russia thinks that positioning Patriot’s is too aggressive an approach.

  3. I was a 24K10 HAWK Missle Repairman in 1980. Hawk predated Patriot. Both made by Raytheon. My MOS required about 8 months of training at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. 1/2 of the training was Basic Electronics. The training cycle for Ukranians can be quickened if they recruit electricians on the onset, and give them Systems training, then straight to the field. Then of course there’s the language barrier. Its non so much the training needed to fire a missle. Infantry do that. Its the maintanence and logistics that is knowledge intensive, as is with most military equipment. In the rear with the gear.
    In 1980, there were also Iranians being trained at Redstone also, in the HAWK System. How the times have changed.

    1. Considering ukraine was already given the Hawk system recently, it just goes to show how fast they are to adapt and learn new technologies- the joke has always been that the brains of russia reside in all the ukranians…I have learned not to underestimate them one bit…when your facing current threats and live war, your ability to be willing to learn and retain information is heightened 100x over- especially compared to a low stress training environment where time is not an issue- they will train 22 hours a day as opposed to a normal training shift of 8 hrs…this will be completed far faster than people would think.

    2. @Umen Human they aren’t for shooting down drones, did you watch the video at all?… Ukraine has been given many other air defence systems – these patriots are just to greatly improve the air defence network being established inside ukraine…iris t, hawk, geopard tanks, s300s…many defense systems are active in ukraine already….this is why when russia launches 100 missles/drones ukraine shoots down 90% of them- 90/100 has been the ratio of missles wasted by russia as ukraine shoots them down…Russia is wasting so much money targeting cheap electrical grid infrastructure- these missles cost millions – all the generators and replacement grid equipment cost nothing in comparison- take it from myself, an electrician…this is a failed strategy by russia and they will learn soon enough….pretty sad that they waste these missles on the civilian population trying to force the ukranian leadership to capitulate instead of targeting ukranian forces like a competent military would be doing….this is why the whole world is laughing at russia right now.

  4. Read from the Ukrainian side that they’ve actually already trained crews on how to operate the Patriot air defense system and they’re about to graduate any time.
    So i’d say that this has probably been in the works for months already.

    1. @JeanJean Indeed, it will not change the fact that Ukraine will win, It will only change the time that it will take.

    2. Keep poking the Russian 🐻. Remember pearl Harbor
      remember 911What makes all of your think for a second that the Russians will not have the power to attack us here on US soil we are nuclear weapons. Their nuclear weapons are much more sophisticated than ours From what I know they have over 2000 while we have 400. Correct me if I’m wrong. Also do you guys know what happens Here in the US once we have a nuclear EMF strike. Massive power outages. Our trucks won’t run. No trucks empty grocery stores. Are you guys ready to watch your child staff to death.? Have you ever heard of pick your battle this is not a battle we need to pick. We need to push our local politicians to Not get involved with the Ukraine. You guys think this is exciting and funny. It won’t be exciting at funny when you watch your mother father brother or sister starve to death and I’m not even talking about Illnesses that occur with radiation. In the meanwhile the Bidens will hide in the bunker until the smoke clears. Unless you all have a safe bunker to retrieve in for a year or 2 . I would suggest to push our local politicians to leave the Ukraine alone.

  5. I was a 14T in the Army. That is a Patriot Missie Operator Maintainer. This is what I did when I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom right after 9/11

  6. The problem with the german Patriot systems is that every year a Patriot-battery is moved from Germany to Crete, Greece, to practice live shooting. It’s not possible here in Germany – the airspace is just too crowded and the risk of something going wrong during an exercise and a passenger plane being shot out of the sky is just too great.

  7. No doubt military people who have worked with these weapon systems will confirm how technically and sophisticated they are and the length of time and training involved and required to operate them competently. There can be no doubt that Ukranian military personnel have had training with them in the previous months as the US and its NATO allies knew eventually these weapons would be introduced into the conflict. There can be no doubt that there is Ukranian military personnel well versed in how go use them.

    1. @Germangirl don’t vote and I know you’re a TrumpTurd by the way you talk. If y’all don’t like your own country (USA) then feel free to move to Russia bro.. not even lying! I’ll even help you pack

    2. @Germangirl don’t vote Nope. Fearmongering will not work. Russia is buying weapons from Iran, and it’s a superpower? They have just started rolling out 40 year old bullets for use.. EM does not affect electronics that are not in operation, EM is not like you see in the movie. Propaganda on Russia attacking the west is fearmongering at it’s best. That is a no win for Russia.

    3. John Roche – Okraine doesn’t have time. They shot their bolt & lost the game – thanks to the idiotic advice they followed from NATO & the US.

    4. @Russell Crowe RU has gad a problem with the 3 day to complete the “special operation”. they now are calling for help and reliance on North Korea and Iran.. wow…truth hurts.

  8. He is very right. I worked on Patriot missiles in the Army for 3 years. It takes a long time to learn these systems. But they can do it.

    1. @Pat Ewing You are all forgetting the fact that ukranians believe and have expressed so themselves the fact that americans are literally stupid and are nothing but arrogant non intelligent drug addicts, in other words if learning how to properly operate one of these sophisticated system can take say somewhere between 12 months up to 3 years than it’ll take it all guarantees and certainty any ukrainian between 2 – 3 1/2 weeks to fully prepared to effectively use the equipment and to use it in ways never before seen by americans meaning they’ll end up charging americans to teach them how to better use these weapons

    2. @Incident Report Before writing crap you should be familiar with the system and obviously you are not . Even if what you said is true there is another problem call Patriot PAC3 is PR weapon with very poor combat results . If get somehow in Ukraine very soon will be obliterated

  9. Gen Herting is spot on. He is old enough to remember how US ‘advisers’ in Vietnam morphed into 41,000 American dead by 1975, thousands maimed and many poorly treated at home from a spectacularly lost war. N.Vietnam dead (partly including civilians) stands at 1 3/4 million. S. Vietnamese losses have never been clear.
    Although undoubtedly brave soldiers usually well commanded in the field the grossly incompetent ‘High Command’ of ex-oligarchs in Kiev has forced the army far too far already and wrecked western weapons by exceeding design parameters and having terrible logistics.
    Even the Patriot PAK-3 version requires a long and complex logistical ‘tail’ which Kiev cannot provide.
    Also, training Ukrainians by Americans in Poland exemplifies ‘mission creep’ from a neighboring state and in international law runs the massive risk of actual and demonstrable war by Poland against Russia.
    Polish history is littered with various tragic political consequences of being where it is in Europe — pushed about by bigger powers. I really cannot see a government in Warsaw being stupid enough to risk all that the Polish have struggled to achieve since 1945.

  10. I saw, from another general, that it takes 10 weeks of training for these 90 people to run the entire system, but I haven’t seen whether that includes the trained mechanics, and electronics technicians. It was also said that the missiles cost between one million and three million. So the differences in opinions are hard to reconcile.

  11. Being German I sincerely hope that our government is stepping up the military support for Ukraine even more. Obviously there is the issue of Leopard 2 and Marder tanks held up by our inept chancellor. But I wish we would contribute some of our US made Patriot systems, too, if the US made the first move.

  12. The will to learn and withhold information increases 100x over when your dealing with a current live threat…Ukraine has adapted to everything in record fashion…I would bet they learn in no time to operate these systems…and I have knowledge of the training regiments, I just have learned not to underestimate the ukranians at all.

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