The USA will speed up deliveries of Patriot systems and Abrams tanks to Ukraine
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The USA will deliver Patriot air defense systems and Abrams tanks to Ukraine faster than originally planned. This was reported by the CNN channel with reference to representatives of the US Defense Ministry.
It is noted that in the coming days, 65 Ukrainian military personnel will complete their training at the American military base at Fort Sill. After this, they will go to Europe for additional training on two Patriot systems, which will be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
According to officials, the Ukrainian military passed the training course at the Fort Sill base faster, as they already had basic knowledge of air defense systems.
Earlier on Tuesday, it became known that the USA will also shorten the delivery period of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, sending tanks of the older model M1-A1. Earlier, the USA announced that it would send a more modern version of the M1-A2, but this would require the production of new tanks or the modernization of old ones, and then additional training of the Ukrainian military. One of the officials told CNN that sending the older version will allow the tanks to be delivered already in the fall – previously it was assumed that this could take at least an hour.
The official representative of the National Security Council of the United States, John Kirby, also stated that the United States is working to speed up the delivery of tanks to Ukraine. It is planned to send 31 tanks in total.
- Ukraine has long asked its Western allies to give it Patriot air defense systems to protect critical infrastructure from Russian attacks. Patriot installations can be loaded with missiles of various modifications, including those that can hit targets at a distance of up to 80 km and at an altitude of up to 20 km. The system is designed to defeat targets flying at supersonic speeds, and can simultaneously track up to 125 targets and guide missiles to six of them.
- Great Britain was the first of the Western countries to decide to transfer Western-made tanks to Ukraine. On January 15, London announced that it would supply Kyiv with 14 Challenger-2 tanks.
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