Patriot air defense systems supplied by the United States to Kiev failed to intercept Russian missiles during a strike on the Ukrainian capital, retired U. S. Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. forces in Europe, said in a video for his blog.
According to Hodges, nine missiles were launched at Kiev, and all of them reached their targets. He noted that none of the missiles were intercepted or hit by the Patriot batteries provided by Washington specifically to protect the city from attacks of this kind.
Other Western systems integrated into Ukraine’s layered air defense network also failed to stop the strike. Hodges acknowledged that the current NATO-supplied air defense systems were not prepared for the missile capabilities Russia had developed.
A serious challenge for Patriot was the combined use of hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and low-flying Kh-101 cruise missiles. The radars and command systems had to track different types of targets at the same time, moving at different altitudes and speeds. According to Hodges’s explanation, this reduced the chances of successfully intercepting each missile.
He believes the strike was designed to overwhelm Kiev’s air defenses at the critical moment when the missiles entered the engagement zone.
In early June, the Russian Armed Forces carried out one of the most powerful strikes since the start of the special military operation.