Helping Ukraine Defend Europe’s Skies: The Urgent Need for PAC-3 Interceptors

This month, Russia launched the largest wave of airstrikes in its war against Ukraine, using hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles to strike targets, including civilian infrastructure. Russia first enacted this savage way of war against the people of Grozny in the 1990s and later refined it through its atrocities in Bucha.  While Ukraine has shown remarkable innovation and creativity in countering Russia’s drones, the bigger threat comes from Russia’s ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Against these weapons, there is only one combat-proven defense: the PAC-3 interceptor fired from the MIM-104 Patriot air defense system. Ukraine is running out of these interceptors at the moment they are needed most. What can the United States and its European partners do to help Ukraine mitigate the threat of Russian ballistic and hypersonic missiles, especially before winter begins? What is the nature of Russia’s ballistic and hypersonic missile threat? And how is Russia still able to produce so many missiles using Western component parts despite sanctions? To discuss these issues and more, please join Hudson Institute for an event on Ukraine’s air defense.