Ukrainian service members are set to start training on the Patriot missile system next week at Fort Sill, Oklahoma — a location where the U.S. conducts its own training on operating air defense systems, CNN reported on Jan. 10, citing two officials familiar with the matter.
The training is expected to take "several months," according to the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia Laura Cooper.
On Jan. 5, the Defense Department said it was considering training Ukrainians on the Patriot in the U.S. or overseas, "or a combination of both."
The U.S. announced it would supply Patriots to Ukraine — the most advanced air defense weapon in its arsenal that Kyiv has been long pleading for – at the end of December ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington, D.C.
The advanced Patriots, of which Germany also committed a battery in early January, aims to significantly improve the defense of Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure against regular Russian missile attacks.
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