The US has spent more than 3 billion dollars on Ukrainian patriots since 2022

According to Isna, following Russia’s successful test of the Orshnik ultrasonic missile in the war against Ukraine in late November, the Netherlands transferred more Patriot rockets to Ukraine.

According to Novosti News agency, based on this analysis, it was also determined that the United States sent two more Patriot missiles to Ukraine in the form of military aid packages to the country after the initial delivery in December 2022.

However, even with the Patriot’s additional firepower, Ukraine still had to rely on capable interceptor missiles, such as the more advanced PAC-3 variant, for the air defense system to function properly.

In June, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said Ukraine would receive priority shipments of interceptor missiles as they roll off assembly lines for the next 16 months.

At the same time, the US military announced in June that it had awarded a $4.5 billion contract to arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin to supply PAC-3 missiles.

Although the United States never explicitly specified the number of Patriot missiles when it announced the new military aid packages, an in-depth review of the Defense Department’s annual budget reports, including special reports on funding transfers from aid to Ukraine, could provide clues about the number of such deliveries. provide the missiles delivered to Kiev.

As part of efforts to maintain transparency about how military aid to Ukraine is being used, the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, also known as the Chief Financial Officer, under the Pentagon, whenever such aid is used to supplement weapons delivered to Ukraine was transferred to the budget of the US military, published a report.

Such reports have described the transfer of military aid funds as steps to reprogram support for Ukraine.

In the first “Reprogramming Action” report, released in January 2023, $956 million was transferred from Ukraine’s aid budget to the US military’s fiscal year 2023 procurement budget following the delivery of Patriot missiles to Ukraine in December. These missiles will replace the missiles sent to Kiev. However, the report did not specify the type of missiles purchased, as $956 million was listed as a “classified program.”

However, the next “Operation Reprogramming” report, released in April 2023, shed more light on the $956 million cost. According to the report, another $340 million was added to the $1.993 billion budget for the purchase of the US military’s PAC-3 missiles to replace the missiles that were transferred to Ukraine.

However, according to the US Army’s main budget report for fiscal year 2023, the military requested only $1.037 billion to procure 252 PAC-3 missiles.

The difference between $1.993 billion and $1.037 billion matched the mysterious $956 million added in January, which indicated that the “classified program” was actually for PAC-3 missiles transferred to Ukraine.

Twice the planned number

Although subsequent DOD “reprogramming actions” reports continued to list a number of “classified programs” to purchase missiles to supplement those delivered to Ukraine, the US military’s fiscal year 2025 budget report provided more detail on the number of missiles in question. It was given to Kiev.

According to the FY 2025 report, the actual budget for the purchase of said missiles for FY 2023 included $1,442,764 million in emergency supplemental funding to support the purchase of replacement missiles transferred to Ukraine.

As a result, the budget for PAC-3 missiles increased to $2.47 billion for fiscal year 2023 from the original $1.037 billion. Also, the average cost of each unit of these missiles is about 3.85 million dollars.

That means an additional $1.44 billion in “emergency supplemental funding” for fiscal year 2023 would allow the U.S. military to purchase at least 375 of these missiles to replace those sent to Ukraine.

The US Department of Defense’s “Reprogramming Action” report, which was published in August, showed that the country’s military budget for the procurement of these missiles for fiscal year 2024 increased to $3.03 billion, compared to the initial budget of $1.212 billion. , increased to 1.818 billion dollars.

An additional $1.818 billion would allow the U.S. military to purchase at least 472 missiles for fiscal year 2024 to replace those delivered to Ukraine.

Also in fiscal year 2023, the U.S. military received $199.27 million in emergency aid to support the procurement of a replacement for a Patriot system radar, launch stations and a single-board computer transferred to Ukraine.

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