https://t.me/geopolitics_live/18707Patriot missile systems too complex and expensive to be sent to Ukraine without US chaperones - ex-DoD analyst
The US government may be lying, “by omission and also directly,” while claiming that no US personnel were sent to Ukraine to maintain and operate Patriot complex weapon systems provided to Kiev by Washington, says retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense.
“Given the vulnerability and the expense and the limited number of these systems, I find it difficult to believe that the US contractors and US operators are not involved and monitoring day-to-day activities in each of these areas of operation,” she notes. “Maintenance of these systems requires over a year of training, and I expect major maintenance is being monitored and done by US contractors and servicemen.”
Noting that the Patriot missile systems that were supplied to Kiev were provided by Germany and the US, along with “some missiles and parts from the Netherlands,” Kwiatkowsky argues that “contracted US support connected directly to those countries may also be in the country,” thus “providing deniability for the Pentagon.”
She also suggests that, given the cost of the Patriot systems and missiles, and “the extensive training required for all aspects of this expensive system, the predictions last year of these systems being largely a political statement of support rather than a significant system of air defense for Ukrainian cities, seems to be valid.”
