30-04-2024, Newsroom email: info@pronews.gr      
     
Israel has decided to withdraw Patriot air defence   missiles. They do not
offer much in air defence, within two months will be withdrawn. The Israeli Air
Force IAF is retiring its Patriot air defence missile systems in the coming
months replacing them with more advanced technologies the Israel defence Forces
IDF announced today. In February the IAF had announced that it was in the
process of shutting down several Patriot guns an estimated 10 are in service
and that its personnel would be trained to operate the Iron Dome.
      
The last Patriot arrays in service will be permanently decommissioned in the
next two months according to the announcement. Right now we are in the process
of reducing the number of gunneries until the entire system is shut down said
the head of the IDFs 138th Air defence Battalion which operates the Patriot.
The US system officially entered Israel's service in 1991 but made its first
interception only in 2014 shooting down a Hamas drone launched from the Gaza
Strip.
      
Over the next decade the system designed to shoot down aircraft intercepted
only about 10 targets according to the IDF including Syrian fighter jets that
violated Israeli airspace in 2014 and 2018. Amid the ongoing war in the Gaza
Strip the Patriot has been used only a few times the IAF said. We realized that
we need to upgrade and improve our defensive methods Innovations in air defence
bring better operational response  said the Israeli battalion commander. 
      
The fate of the American systems after their withdrawal is unknown but already
a basic idea has been fallen on the table. The US could buy back those systems
and later hand them over to Ukraine which is desperately asking its allies for
more air defence systems to protect itself from Russian attacks.