Israel Replenishes Ukrainian Patriot Air Defence Arsenals After Heavy Combat Losses

<p >Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Brodsky has confirmed that his country has transferred MIM-104 <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/netherlands-replenishes-ukraine-patriot-losses" target="_blank">Patriot air defence systems</a> to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. “The Patriot systems that we once received from the U.S. are now in Ukraine. These are Israeli systems that were in service in the early 1990s. We agreed to transfer them to Ukraine," the ambassador informed the Ukrainian media outlet Insider. Speaking on June 8, he notably refrained from specifying the timing of the transfer, and thus did not provide confirmation as to whether <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/israel-delivering-large-quantities-patriot-air-defence-ukraine" >reports by Western sources</a> in January 2025 of such transfers were accurate, or whether the systems were delivered more recently. Brodsky further refrained from elaborating on the number of systems which have been delivered, meaning it will likely remain uncertain whether Israel agreed to supply its entire arsenal, or has maintained some units in storage. It has been reported that radars and other parts of the Israeli systems will first be refurbished in the United States before delivery to Ukraine.</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/10/article_684827386c0b61_71456804.jpg" title="Israel Defence Forces Missile Battery From Patriot Air Defence System " ></p><p > </p><p >Israel faced sustained pressure from across the Western world to supply armaments to Ukraine from early 2022, but previously refrained from doing so due largely to its perceived need to maintain ties with Russia. The <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/hamas-capture-merkavas-vehicles-offensive" target="_blank">outbreak of hostiles</a> between Israeli forces and paramilitaries in the Gaza Strip, and subsequently <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/hezbollah-artillery-air-defence-escalation" target="_blank">with Hezbollah</a>, the Yemeni Ansurullah Coalition, and Iran, significantly increased the country’s reliance on Western support, which has been reported by some sources to have been a major factor leading Tel Aviv to accept Western requests to transfer armaments. The <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/interview-syria-defeat-russia-israel-security" target="_blank">overthrow of the government</a> of Israel’s neighbour Syria in December 2024 by Turkish and Western backed <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/new-intel-chief-slams-policy-syria" target="_blank">insurgents</a> may have been a further factor, with the installation of a Western-aligned government and destruction of its vast air fleets and North Korean-supplied missile arsenals having taken signifiant pressure off Israeli defences. Patriot systems were procured at a time when Iraq, Libya and Syria were adversaries that remained outside the Western sphere of influence, and all maintained significant ballistic missile programs and combat aviation capabilities. Successful military action against all three Arab states by Israel’s strategic partners in the region and in the Western world has effectively removed these security challenges. </p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/10/article_684829d6963342_13130950.jpg" title="Surface-to-Air Missile Launches By Patriot Air Defence Systems"></p><p >The Israel Defence Forces in May 2024 confirmed plans to mothball Patriot systems, at a time of high intensity engagements with adversaries with advanced missile capabilities. This was interpreted by a number of analysts as a significant indication of the Patriot’s <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/patriot-save-ukraine-combat-record">performance shortcomings</a>. Retirement of Israel’s Patriots systems followed widespread reports of the serious friendly fire issues during combat operations, leading to the shooting down of significant numbers of Israeli drones. U.S. Military sources have reported that <a href="https://www.twz.com/air/israel-is-shooting-down-a-lot-of-its-own-drones">40 percent of aircraft</a> shot down by Israeli forces in late 2024 were friendly. This mirrored <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-apr-21-war-patriot21-story.html#:~:text=The%20first%20friendly%2Dfire%20incident,to%20Central%20Command%20spokesman%20Lt.">similar issues</a> faffecting the U.S. Army’s Patriot systems during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Patriot has been replaced in Israeli service by the more advanced <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/finland-davidssling-russian-intel-compromised">David’s Sling </a>developed jointly by Israel and the United States, which forms a core part of the country’s multi-layered network. Israel is the only operator of the Patriot system to have phased it completely out of service, which combined with the significant size of its arsenal makes it highly valued as a supplier, at a time when U.S. and its NATO allies have faced serious shortages of Patriot systems, with the U.S. Army’s arsenal increasingly <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/airdefence-shortage-forces-danger">thinly stretched</a>. The age of Israeli systems, however, makes the far from cutting edge.</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/10/article_684827261d1f17_86704392.png" title="Ukrainian Patriot System Milliseconds Before Iskander Missile Strike "></p><p >The Patriot is by far the most costly and high value weapons system operated by Ukraine, and is exported by the U.S. for approximately $2.5 billion per system, although some sources have cited a cost of $1.5 billion. The systems have been donated to the Eastern European country by multiple NATO member states, with the United States in December 2022 having been the first to pledge to provide them. The need for new supplies is considered particularly dire due to both an inability to replenish Ukraine’s previously vast arsenals of Soviet standard air defence systems, and due to the very high rates at which Patriot systems delivered from across the Western world have been destroyed in combat. The Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile has been <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/patriot-effectiveness-questioned-ukrainian-air-force">singled out</a> in Ukrainian Air Force reports for its ability to evade interception by the system, and has been confirmed by video footage to have destroyed them multiple times. The Iskander was first <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/patriot-take-out-ukraine-replace">confirmed</a> to have successfully destroyed a Patriot system on February 23, 2024, with a <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukrainian-patriot-losses-iskander">subsequent strike </a>destroying another system near the Sergeevka locality on March 10 that year, after which new footage in July <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/footage-iskander-ukraine-patriot">confirmed the destruction</a> of two batteries in the Odessa region. On August 11 three more batteries and an AN/MPQ-65 radar were reported <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/american-patriot-mpq65radar-ukraine">destroyed</a> in Iskander-M strikes. One of the Iskander-M’s more recent successes saw the <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/patriot-destroyed-russian-iskander-missile">destruction</a> of the Patriot’s AN/MPQ-65 multifunctional radar station, combat control cabin, and missile launch vehicles in the Dnepropetrovsk region.</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/10/article_684828234f49f7_62910557.jpg" title="Cluster Warhead Explosions From Iskander-M Strike on Ukrainian Patriot Batteries"></p><p >The extent of Western shortages of Patriot systems has been widely attested to by senior officials, with assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan having <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/no-more-patriot-ukraine-stocks" >confirmed</a> as early as April 2024 that the United States would be unable to provide new systems to Ukraine, despite recent requests from President Zelensky for “at least seven”new units. “The U.S. Patriot systems right now are being deployed around the world, including in the Middle East, to protect U.S. troops,” Sullivan stated.“If we can unlock further American Patriot batteries we would send them. But we are doing a lot of the supplying of the actual missiles that go into those batteries that get fired,” he added. European NATO members’ inventories have been even more seriously depleted, with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock having confirmed in April 2024 regarding her own country’s capacity: “Unfortunately, the stocks, especially our own Patriot systems, are now pretty much exhausted. Therefore I made it clear at a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting that we need to check the availability of all Patriot systems in Europe and globally, and that we will make every effort to obtain these systems for Ukraine.” Israel’s capacity to provide new systems is thus highly valued, although considering the age of the systems and their limitations, their ability to provide viable cover for Ukrainian forces and strategic targets remains in serious question.</p>