These Patriot Missiles Are Israel's Trash And Ukraine's Treasure

Forbes

10 hours ago

A Patriot missile launcher is pictured during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at ... More the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on November 8, 2017. (JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
MIM-104 Patriot missile air defense missiles previously in Israel's inventory may have reached Ukraine. Kyiv doubtlessly welcomes with open arms any help it can get bolstering its beleaguered air defenses, especially as it faces its heaviest missile and drone bombardments of the war. In Israel's case, its history with the Patriots suggests it's probably more than happy to dispense with them.
In an interview published on June 8, Israel's ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, said that ex-Israeli Patriot systems are now in Ukrainian service.
'These are Israeli Patriots that were in service in the early 1990s. We agreed to transfer them to Ukraine,' Brodsky said. 'Unfortunately, not much was said about this… when people claim that Israel didn't provide military aid, that's simply not true.'
The Israeli Foreign Ministry swiftly denied Brodsky's comment, stating, 'It is not correct. Israel did not transfer Patriot systems to Ukraine.'
From the moment Israel decided to retire its Patriots in 2024, it was clear that Ukraine hoped it would receive at least some of them. By then, Kyiv had received some Patriot systems and already succeeded in shooting down some of Russia's most advanced missiles and aircraft.
The Israeli denial was noteworthy in light of a year's worth of reports indicating the contrary. The Wall Street Journal reported in June 2024 that the U.S. and Israel were nearing an agreement to transfer up to eight Patriot systems from Israel's inventory to Ukraine, a move it correctly noted would 'dramatically increase' Ukrainian air defenses.
Axios reported in January that the U.S. military had transferred approximately 90 Patriot interceptor missiles from Israel to Poland en route to Ukraine. Furthermore, the New York Times reported in May that an Israel-based Patriot system would be sent to Ukraine following refurbishment.
Israel may not want to acknowledge a transfer. The wording of the denial specifies it did not send systems but doesn't mention the interceptor missiles, which Ukraine could fire from its existing Patriot batteries. Consequently, Israel could truthfully say that it gave Ukraine the bullets but not the gun.
According to that Axios report, Israel reassured Russia it was 'only returning' a Patriot system to the U.S., not transferring it to Ukraine. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an Israeli Patriot was returned to the U.S. but also clarified that 'it is not known to us whether it was delivered to Ukraine.'
Israel's official denial may indicate it doesn't want any credit for helping beef up Ukrainian air defenses to avoid antagonizing Russia, which recently wanted to stay in Syria to counterbalance Turkey. When Russia's ally Bashar al-Assad was still in power, the Russian military was in a much more powerful strategic position in Syria than today. During those years, Israel invariably said it did not want to risk antagonizing Moscow, with which it had a deconfliction mechanism in Syria permitting it to bomb Iran-linked targets throughout the country, by supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons. It even refused an American request for vintage Hawk missiles it had retired long ago.
Now, Israel may be happy to dispense with its Patriots without acknowledgment. Israel noticeably did not use any Patriots during Iran's April and October 2024 missile attacks and the more recent Iranian bombardments that began on June 13, after Israel's Operation Rising Lion against Iran.
That's not surprising, considering Israel's Arrow and David's Sling systems are more suitable for intercepting ballistic missiles compared to its older Patriot PAC-2s. Furthermore, Israel's experience during its first major missile attack—during the Persian Gulf War all the way back in 1991—fostered a long-running distaste for the system.
America rushed Patriot systems to Israel ahead of that war to help defend against Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles. Washington feared an Israeli retaliation would splinter the coalition, which included many Arab states it had carefully united around the goal of ejecting Iraq from Kuwait. While over 40 Scud missiles hit Tel Aviv and Haifa during the war, an agitated Israel sat tight. Adding insult to injury was the inability of the Patriot interceptors to counter the overwhelming majority of the Scuds, despite widespread reports of its efficiency at the time.
The Israeli Air Force concluded after the war that there was 'no evidence of a single successful intercept' with 'circumstantial evidence for one possible intercept' at best. Defense Minister Moshe Arens recalled after the war that the number of Scuds intercepted was 'minuscule and is in fact meaningless.'
With some conspicuous exceptions, the Israeli Patriots spent the intervening decades, in the words of one Israeli news outlet, 'mostly gathering dust' and never scoring any intercepts until it shot down a Hamas drone during the 2014 Gaza war.
Israeli Patriots saw rare combat in the summer of 2014, just under a quarter century after entering service, when they shot down Hamas drones from Gaza and a Su-24 bomber over the Golan Heights. However, by then, Israel had the Iron Dome in service, and its David's Sling was just three years away from becoming operational. The older Patriots' days in Israeli service were numbered.
But its combat-proven efficiencies against drones and Russian-built aircraft in 2014 show, in retrospect, how suited it is for Ukraine at the moment. Since Kyiv launched its daring Spider's Web operation against Russia's strategic bombers on June 1, it has faced no fewer than 1,451 drones from Russia against its cities. Kyiv needs all the help it can get. And even some extra PAC-2s for its existing systems from Israel would go a long way in keeping its critical air defenses online.
Given Ukraine's present need and Israel's historical dislike of them, one could hardly find a more clear-cut example of the saying one man's trash is another man's treasure.