Poland has just recently officially confirmed the secret transfer of an unspecified number of PAC-3 MSE anti-ballistic missiles to Ukraine for the Patriot SAM system.
As Defence 24 reported, Poland transferred 5 PAC-3 MSE missiles to Ukraine. This is less than even estimated in the Ukrainian expert community, given that Poland currently has up to 208 PAC-3 MSE anti-aircraft missiles at its disposal.
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Of course, given the severe shortage of missiles of this type in Ukraine, even the news of such a quantity is great news for Ukrainians, because these missiles will be able to intercept up to 5 russian ballistic missiles at best. Let us recall that in Ukraine, only one PAC-3 MSE missile is used to intercept one ballistic target – precisely because of their shortage.
At the same time, 5 missiles will not even be enough to fully equip one Patriot launcher, which can accommodate from 6 to 12 such missiles. Poland says that transferring 5 missiles is the most they can do without negatively affecting Poland's air defense capabilities.
At the same time, in order to transfer these 5 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, Poland "bargained" with the U.S. and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, simply ideal conditions for themselves. In particular, the U.S. and NATO promised that Poland would receive ten times more missiles and systems of this type during the first 24 hours of the threat to the country.
That is, under these conditions, if Poland transfers 1 PAC-3 MSE missile to Ukraine, then as soon as they need them for defense, within 24 hours the Poles will receive 10 such missiles in return. Accordingly, for 5 missiles transferred to Ukraine, Poland will receive 50 missiles.
That is, these conditions are really very good, and given this, it is strange why Poland transferred only 5 missiles, and not a conditional dozen, which would also not affect the combat capability of the Polish air defense. Based on this logic, in such a case, if there is a real need, Poland could receive hundreds of such missiles from NATO and in particular from the U.S.
Let us recall that the U.S. is going to grant Ukraine a license to produce the PAC-3 MSE missile. Previously, Defense Express analyzed how long it might take to master the production of these anti-aircraft missiles.
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