In all fairness to Raytheon, Patriot is incredibly good at what it does. The problem isn’t the platform, the problem is that what it does is shoot down $80m combat aircraft. When that’s your target, $1-5M a shot is cheap. And Patriot is deadly accurate. Ukraine has used it to basically neutralize the Russian airforce.
The fault here is with US Military command, who point blank refused to take drones seriously while everyone else was working overtime to adapt to them. Ukraine actually offered to partner with the US on training and technology specifically to intercept shahed drones and the US turned them down.
Now, we can only speculate as to why that is, and it’s certainly possible that arms industry lobbyists wanted to avoid Ukrainian defence companies gaining any share of the US market. But that would only be speculation. I suspect it has far more to do with American arrogance; “What can little Ukraine teach us about war?”
Maybe you’re right, but imagine you’re a Raytheon executive watching the Pentagon spend millions of dollars a pop to shoot down thousands of Shaheds. You would call in sick, admitted for IV fluids after a near-fatal jizzing spree. Point being, they have to love how badly those weapons are being squandered.
And yes, chief War Bro Hegseth has an arrogance issue. But he’s only the latest paragraph in a story several decades long.
Oh, I never specifically claimed this was a Hegseth problem. Notice I said “American” arrogance. This problem has been going on much, much longer than the current electoral cycle.
I only name-checked him because I think he was the one in charge when Ukraine offered drone collaboration, you’re correct about that.
I think it’s just the way with empires that haven’t fully faded. Feels like the US is close to having its Spanish Armada moment, especially after they’ve run out of Patriot missiles.
In all fairness to Raytheon, Patriot is incredibly good at what it does. The problem isn’t the platform, the problem is that what it does is shoot down $80m combat aircraft. When that’s your target, $1-5M a shot is cheap. And Patriot is deadly accurate. Ukraine has used it to basically neutralize the Russian airforce.
The fault here is with US Military command, who point blank refused to take drones seriously while everyone else was working overtime to adapt to them. Ukraine actually offered to partner with the US on training and technology specifically to intercept shahed drones and the US turned them down.
Now, we can only speculate as to why that is, and it’s certainly possible that arms industry lobbyists wanted to avoid Ukrainian defence companies gaining any share of the US market. But that would only be speculation. I suspect it has far more to do with American arrogance; “What can little Ukraine teach us about war?”
Maybe you’re right, but imagine you’re a Raytheon executive watching the Pentagon spend millions of dollars a pop to shoot down thousands of Shaheds. You would call in sick, admitted for IV fluids after a near-fatal jizzing spree. Point being, they have to love how badly those weapons are being squandered.
And yes, chief War Bro Hegseth has an arrogance issue. But he’s only the latest paragraph in a story several decades long.
Oh, I never specifically claimed this was a Hegseth problem. Notice I said “American” arrogance. This problem has been going on much, much longer than the current electoral cycle.
I only name-checked him because I think he was the one in charge when Ukraine offered drone collaboration, you’re correct about that.
I think it’s just the way with empires that haven’t fully faded. Feels like the US is close to having its Spanish Armada moment, especially after they’ve run out of Patriot missiles.