Ukraine needs integrated air and missile defense, not just Patriot - Austin
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin spoke about the progress of negotiations on the supply of additional Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to Interfax-Ukraine.
"As for Patriot and what we can do in the future, it remains to be seen. But I can say that we continue to work on it very seriously. All of the countries that have Patriot certainly value that capability, but I think in the future we will be able to, hopefully, work with a number of countries to build additional Patriot capabilities," Austin said at a press conference after the 21st meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (Ramstein format).
According to the Pentagon chief, in the past few days he has had one-on-one conversations with some of his European colleagues to discuss this and other issues. Thus, Austin noted that the United States will continue to work on air defense, and also emphasized that Ukraine needs not only Patriot systems.
"I would like to point out that they need not only Patriot, they need other types of systems and missiles. So I would warn all of us against making Patriot a panacea. I would say that it is integrated air and missile defense, as we have said many times, that will really make a difference," Austin said.
In addition, he noted that there are other means that Ukraine needs, and the search for which is ongoing. "And maybe we can get them for Ukrainians a little faster, but this work is ongoing," the Pentagon chief added.
