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I'd be interested to know what was damaged from the Patriot and how, was it a Kinzhal that got too close? Was it a malfunction? Was it a drone? Lol. If a Kinzhal only damaged a Patriot launcher then it's not really something worth bragging about for Russia, Imho

Patriot is a sophisticated system with multiple layers, it consists of an array radar, a command and control centre, then the launchers themselves, each Patriot Battery (the term used for the overall system; radar, command and control, launchers) consists of 5-8 launchers which can fire 4 missiles each at a time.

If a single launcher is damaged then that is the best case scenario, as a launcher is easily replaceable and each Patriot battery consists of 5-8 launchers so Ukraine would be down by 1 but still have launchers for their Patriot system. The most important aspect is the Radar array, followed by the Command & Control centre and none of them have to be close to the Patriot itself.

The fact that they are debating whether it can be repaired on Ukraine soil is good news, it suggests the damage isn't that serious because if it was then they'd likely haul that launcher straight back to Poland.

Obviously, it's bad in the sense that, they're down one launcher (4 missiles) and the Patriots have been the only thing capable of taking down the Kinzhal's so far but they should still have two Patriot batteries and multiple launchers, they'll have to adjust things slightly to account for being down one launcher.

All the more reason to send Ukraine even more Patriot batteries, Russia is lobbing their Kinzhal's at them and they're a lot harder to defend than HIMARS which are constantly on the move. On the flip side, Russia doesn't have an infinite supply of Kinzhal's either, quite the opposite, they haven't got many at all.

Typical Patriot setup, best case scenario, Ukraine lost one launcher, they have 7 left, 7 for one battery, 8 for the other battery, they only have two Patriot batteries in total so far.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 16 May 2023