Commander says some Ukrainian Patriot crews are deviating from ideals and fighting Russian threats with fewer missiles

• A Ukrainian Patriot unit commander said his crew was firing one interceptor per Russian missile.

• This is a break from standard Patriot air defense doctrine, which calls for at least two interceptors per missile.

• It is not clear how widespread this practice is.

A Ukrainian commander revealed that some soldiers operating the Patriot air defense system are deviating from traditional engagement exercises and firing fewer interceptors in battles against incoming Russian missiles.

In a video released over the weekend by the Ukrainian military’s Air Command West, the Patriot unit commander, known only as Oleksandr, said that while standard air defense doctrine calls for firing between two and four interceptors at each incoming Russian cruise or ballistic missile, his forces are firing just one per threat amid a strained stockpile.

Oleksandr said his military is trying to use as few interceptors as possible. He said more was needed to effectively counter Russian aggression. It is unclear how widely this single-shot approach is practiced among Ukrainian patriotic parties.

Launching more than one interceptor in an engagement, while expensive, is not unnecessarily wasteful; Rather, it is deliberate risk management, prioritizing killing over conservation. But Ukraine often didn’t have that luxury. In high-intensity combat, the US and its allies may not.

Yehor Cherniev, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence, said Ukraine faced a low Patriot interceptor stockpile, forcing it to use as little as possible to engage Russian missiles.

Ukraine had to learn to maximize its capacity to protect critical bottlenecks, Cherniev told Business Insider. “This is the operation of the Patriot system in manual mode without relying on automation.”

American made MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile The battery is the most advanced air defense system Ukraine has. NATO countries have supplied Kiev with PAC-2 and newer PAC-3 interceptors, the latter estimated to cost around $4 million.

Russian cruise and ballistic missiles that make it past Patriots and other air defense systems have had lethal impacts on civilian infrastructure or residential areas. Kiev has repeatedly lobbied NATO states for more deterrents. However, the weapon is in high demand globally.

Some Russian bombardments include hundreds of missiles and drones, posing a challenge to Ukraine’s stretched air defenses and underscoring the need for more advanced interceptors.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Tuesday that Germany would fund “several hundred” Patriot interceptors to Kiev as part of a new 4 billion euro ($4.7 billion) arms package.

During the Iran war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev was willing to send interceptor drones to Middle Eastern states in exchange for their vaunted Patriot interceptors.

The U.S. military, the primary operator of the Patriot system, is learning from the experience in Ukraine that it’s important to keep batteries hidden and mobile and have enough interceptors, U.S. officials previously told Business Insider.

Using fewer interceptors against Russian missiles could be another lesson for the US and its NATO allies, which are concerned about their own interceptor stockpiles in the event of a major war against a near-ally.

Cherniev said that NATO states did not need to break the protocol at this point because they had sufficient stockpiles and were not routinely attacked with massive bombardments of ballistic missiles; However, he said, this could change in large-scale war situations.

In the Middle East, US and allied forces have intercepted thousands of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones during five weeks of continuous fighting. The speed and intensity of those engagements has raised concerns about whether interceptor stockpiles can last long or in future conflicts.

Cherniev said NATO forces may eventually be forced to start saving the interceptors. “If they have already learned how to do it from the Ukrainian authorities and have changes in their protocol, that’s good.”

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