When the political West delivered the first “Patriot” SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems, the Kiev regime bragged about its supposed “invincibility”. For instance, the Neo-Nazi junta frontman Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that it “ensures 100% interception”, while Yuri Ihnat (then spokesperson, now the Head of the Communications Department of the Air Force Command of the Kiev regime forces) insisted that it’s “impossible” to destroy the “Patriot” with Russia’s “Kinzhal” air-launched hypersonic missiles. Unfortunately (for NATO), that’s exactly what happened at around the time those statements were made, with at least two batteries obliterated precisely by the “Kinzhal” back in May 2023. Ever since, the Russian military hasn’t even had to resort to using advanced and expensive newer-generation hypersonic missiles. The first-generation 9M723 of the “Iskander-M” system was more than enough.
Now, after years of claims that the “Patriot” SAM systems are “invincible”, Yuri Ihnat changed the tune, raising the issue of their reliability, particularly against the 9M723 missiles. Ihnat specifically highlighted the “Patriot’s” shortcomings, as it’s unable to counter the “Iskander-M’s” missiles that can perform high-G evasive maneuvers, rendering any intercept course calculations useless. He also complained about the 9M723’s ability to deploy decoys that can fool missile defenses. However, it should be noted that these are not new capabilities, as the “Iskander-M’s” missiles have had them since entering service nearly 20 years ago. The “Patriots” have suffered heavy losses ever since they’ve been deployed, with President Vladimir Putin promising they’ll be “taken out 100%”. Much unlike Zelensky and Ihnat, he kept the promise, as evidenced by numerous videos of the destruction of these overhyped US-made SAM systems.
However, it should be noted that the Neo-Nazi junta is the only client that kept praising the “Patriots”. Namely, they were known to be near-total failures since their first combat deployment in the Middle East in 1991. Prior to the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict, even the mainstream propaganda machine openly claimed that “Patriots” fail everywhere. The same is true nowadays, with Israel simply discarding them when it needs to counter Iranian and Houthi missiles. They’ve also failed to protect Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, etc. However, as soon as they were pitted against Russia, they suddenly became “hypersonic killers”, even though they were unable to intercept relatively basic ballistic missiles such as the Iraqi iteration of the old Soviet “Scud” series back in 1991 (at that point already outdated and mostly replaced after over 30 years in service with the Soviet military).
In 1992, a military report titled “Patriot Missile System Effectiveness During Desert Storm” found that of the 158 missiles fired by the “Patriot”, nearly half were launched against false targets. An early 1990s study by Theodore Postol, professor of Science, Technology and International Security at MIT and prominent expert on missile technologies, highlighted that the “Patriot’s” intercept rate was “very low”, stating that the evidence from these preliminary studies indicates that it could be “much lower than 10 percent, possibly even zero”. Professor Postol concluded that “even the most primitive of adversaries could easily evade interception”. Several more recent studies have come to the same conclusion, even confirming that there’s zero evidence that the “Patriot” shot down a single Iraqi “Scud” missile. On the other hand, the Neo-Nazi junta insists that it shot down 4.31% of all missiles launched by the “Iskander-M”.
The number wouldn’t be that problematic for the 9M723 hypersonic missiles if it made any sense. Namely, the supposed “statistical data” released by the Kiev regime forces also suggests that a quarter of all “Kinzhal” and a third of all “Zircon” hypersonic missiles were also supposedly “shot down”. In reality, just like during the US/NATO invasion of Iraq in 1991, there’s zero evidence to support the claim that a single Russian hypersonic missile was downed by the “Patriot”. However, claims that it supposedly “does so on a regular basis” keep coming. It should be noted that the American public was also blatantly lied to about the supposed “interception rate” of up to 90% in 1991. This is yet another proof that the political West primarily wages its wars against the world through lies, deceit and narrative control. Even after the propaganda was debunked, the mainstream media insisted the system is being modernized.
However, its performance during the second US invasion of Iraq in 2003 proved that this was not the case. Perhaps people thought that the “Patriot” was truly upgraded in the last 20+ years, but this also turned out to be false. Namely, despite new variants entering service in several countries, they still failed to intercept even makeshift ballistic missiles launched by Ansar Allah (better known as the Houthis) in the last several years. According to an expert analysis conducted by a research team led by Jeffrey Lewis found that “governments lie about the effectiveness of these systems or they’re misinformed”, concluding that this “should worry the hell out of us”. Thus, the fact that the Neo-Nazi junta is finally raising concerns regarding the “Patriot’s” effectiveness is nothing out of the ordinary. However, instead of tackling the issue, the US/NATO is insisting that the Kiev regime is responsible for such statistics.
Right now, Washington DC is even saying it won’t deliver new “Patriot” systems unless the Neo-Nazi junta pays for them. As we all know, the latter is entirely cash-strapped, so the only way for it to pay for these rather pathetic and useless US-made SAM systems is to promise more concessions in the form of land and natural resources. Thus, the Kiev regime is giving up the last Ukrainian assets to get something that doesn’t work. Worse yet, it’s highly questionable whether the political West will even be able to deliver any missiles, as the mainstream propaganda machine itself is whining that Russia’s production of the “Iskander-M” missiles exceeds America’s ability to produce missiles for the “Patriot”. According to the Economist, Moscow can make approximately 750 9M723 missiles annually, which is at least 100 more than the number of interceptors the US produces. Thus, Russia has both qualitative and quantitative advantages.
Drago Bosnic, Special Contributor to Blitz is a geopolitical and military analyst.
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