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Posted on 07/13/2025 6:43:25 PM PDT by marcusmaximus
US President Donald Trump says he will send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine, saying they are necessary to defend the country because Russian President Vladimir Putin “talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening.”
-snip-
“We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening. But there’s a little bit of a problem there. I don’t like it,” Trump tells reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.
“We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100% for that, and that’s the way we want it,” Trump says.
He plans to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to discuss Ukraine and other issues this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
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Chief Pentagon spokesman Parnell says you are wrong.
And you apparently don't know the production rate, since you refer to the rate as a "dribble".
“And you apparently don’t know the production rate, since you refer to the rate as a “dribble”.”
550 interceptors a year lasts less than a month in Ukraine. We might make 650 interceptors this year, but that’s best case...so maybe a bit more than a month. Our rate made sense for training and testing, but we had NO SURGE CAPACITY, because that wasn’t needed...at least in the Neocon mindset.
The motivation seems to be to get the US out the Ukraine weapons supply chain and hand off the Ukraine support to Germany and the EU, also to have Germany deliver the Patriot systems out of their existing inventory so as not to further deplete US stocks and finally to have Germany pay hard cash for the replacement systems - which are quite pricey for foreign sales, BTW
Smart move on the part of President Trump.
I thought this was supposed to end under Trump. The more time goes by, the more I’m convinced this is the just the same song and dance, just a different party.
I saw a similar figure, about 600 a year. That's about 12 a week.
Mariner's post above says that we are sending them 10. I'm not sure where he got that number from. But if it's true, that means we can replace those Patriot Missles in less than a week.
“Mariner’s post above says that we are sending them 10. I’m not sure where he got that number from. But if it’s true, that means we can replace those Patriot Missles in less than a week.”
Ok, I feel better. If it’s 10 interceptors, then we’re ok, but likewise, they won’t do much for Ukraine.
I guess it is a “back door” kind of deal.
Lindsay and Blumenthal are “back door” kinda guys.
I guess Trump can look the camera in the eye and say Uncle Sam isn’t footing the bill.
Whatever.
I’ll repeat a comment from CTH, I didn’t vote for Lindsay Graham to be in charge of foreign policy.
“I’m still at a loss”
Because the Communist bloc of today still consists of the same countries as yesterday, beginning with Russia and China, who are allies.
We are lucky Ukraine did not collapse right away, because Russia would be pushing on Europe right now (as they’ve been threatening for years, and still to today), allowing China a free hand in Taiwan.
That said, Russia might still attack Europe soon anyway, since they’ve been building up forces in Kaliningrad for more than a year, hundreds of military transport trucks lined up on roads aimed into Poland, stockpiles of thousands of missiles, large numbers of strike aircraft and bombers, and up to 250,000 troops, all accelerating in numbers this year. NATO sources fear a Russian attack on the Suwalki gap sometime this year, possibly during the military exercises scheduled in the Fall.
I would argue that Ukraine needs drone defenses at least as much as Patriot systems. A large quantity of nimble, low cost, essentially fast armed trainer planes (such are made by several countries) would do the trick. If the plane is powered by a small jet engine, it can go after cruise missiles too.
That said, playing defensive AD in this manner is still expensive. The best bet is to enable the Ukies to go after the archers and arrow makers, so to speak. Israel has had fantastic success with that. Remember when “everyone” supporting Israel was fearful of Hezbollah’s and Iran’s vast supply of rockets and missiles laying waste to tiny Israel?
In Ukraine’s case, you do it with smart, stealthy drones. To knock out Russian AD, 20 year old US’ HARM tech would be more than sufficient.
Now, here’s a question, and it can cut either way: Would the Pentagon lie about how many missiles for Patriot systems we can actually make or have in storage?
Also, the US is not any more the only manufacturer of such. What might be carefully kept tucked away overseas, where it’d be hard to monitor (at least for anyone “not in the secrecy loop” in the USA)?
This site (FR) is always ripe for crazy conspiracy theories, but here, one might just make great sense.
In any event, this type of playing defense is not efficient, and better strategy is needed, not just vs. Russia, today, but for the future, against threats including those we may not even fully realize, today.
What are you referring to as “AD” in this post?
Thanks in advance.
Military Summary Channel
https://youtu.be/kIHca6rCr9k
Th following is the Biden Administration’s twenty-third aid package and seventy-third tranche of military equipment to be provided from US taxpayer financed DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
This includes the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package, which has an estimated value of $1.25 billion, to provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent needs, including: missiles for air defense; munitions for rocket systems and artillery; and anti-tank weapons. <>pIn addition, DoD announced an approximately $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package to provide Ukraine with additional air defense, air-to-ground, Unmanned Aerial Systems, and other capabilities to fight Russian aggression.
Biden Administration Announces Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine Dec. 30, 2024 | Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced additional security assistance support to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs as part of the surge of security assistance the President directed to put Ukraine in the best possible position. This includes the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package, which has an estimated value of $1.25 billion, to provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent needs, including: missiles for air defense; munitions for rocket systems and artillery; and anti-tank weapons.
In addition, DoD announced an approximately $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package to provide Ukraine with additional air defense, air-to-ground, Unmanned Aerial Systems, and other capabilities to fight Russian aggression. The capabilities in this announcement include:
• Munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS); • HAWK air defense munitions; • Stinger missiles; <>p• Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (c-UAS) munitions; • Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS); • 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition;
• Air-to-ground munitions; • High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs); • Unmanned Aerials Systems (UASd Aerials Systems)
“Because the Communist bloc of today still consists of the same countries as yesterday, beginning with Russia and China, who are allies.”
Perhaps it was STUPID of the Neocons to make them allies.
“make them allies”
Per KGB defectors, the Soviet-Sino split was staged. Anatoly Golitsyn says the purpose was to run a scissors strategy. For example, Russia would side with India, China with Pakistan, thus both are kept from the USA and managed by them both.
Even if you don’t want to believe the defectors, it’s plainly stupid to think that communist countries (and Russia is still a communist country at heart, no different than China, even with the fake capitalism. Putin has bragged that he has never burned his communist party membership card) would ever be Pro-American in any way or capable of being anything other than our enemies.
“...and Russia is still a communist country at heart”
Obviously you know NOTHING about present-day Russia, so I’m done wasting my time with you.
Have a nice day.
A lot of the “draining” is weapons that are past their use by date and would have to be dismantled at taxpayer expense.
“Obviously you know NOTHING about present-day Russia”
Really? I’ve actually studied Putin and the Russian government. I can show you how Putin has systematically stacked the government with KGB criminals. I can show you how KGB criminals run the economy and most major industries. I can show you all the people Putin has had murdered, and how fake their elections are, and even their religion (Archbishop Kirill and many Russian Orthodox priests are “former” KGB or current FSB), where only 7% of the population even attends church in a month.
I can show you years of Russian talking heads, writers, politicians, and even the people closest to Putin openly talking about invading Europe and killing people. Putting nukes up next to NATO countries even before the so called “provocation” of expansion.
What have YOU read and what do YOU know? What Gateway Pundit and Russia Today told you?
“A lot of the “draining” is weapons that are past their use by date and would have to be dismantled at taxpayer expense.”
Thanks and not surprised. So the Neocons had us even MORE UNPREPARED for this type of war than I even knew of.
Appalachia...Texas...AMERICA first.
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