Pentagon to bring Ukrainian fighters to Oklahoma for training on Patriot missile system

The Pentagon is planning to bring Ukrainian troops into the United States for training on the Patriot missile defense system, U.S. officials said Tuesday, signaling the Biden administration’s latest test of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threshold for Western intervention in the conflict.

The training will occur at Fort Sill, an expansive facility covering roughly 145 square miles southwest of Oklahoma City, and could begin as soon as next week. The base is home to the U.S. military’s basic Patriot missile defense training program and another curriculum designed to teach American personnel field artillery maneuvers.

The move follows President Biden’s decision last month approving the transfer of a Patriot system to Ukraine, which for weeks has endured blistering Russian missile attacks on its energy grid and other vital infrastructure. Germany last week announced that it, too, would send a Patriot battery to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses as millions face repeated blackouts that have cut heat, light and internet access for large portions of the country.

It was not immediately clear how many Ukrainian soldiers would be sent to Oklahoma. A typical Patriot battery includes about 90 troops, though in the past U.S. personnel have conducted similar training only for a small number of their counterparts who then return to the battlefield and teach their comrades what they’ve learned. It’s an approach the Pentagon refers to as “train the trainer,” and has been used since the war began to show Ukrainian forces how to operate drones, howitzers and other advanced systems.

A Pentagon spokesman, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, told reporters Tuesday that U.S. officials have consulted closely with the Ukrainians to determine how many personnel can come off the battlefield in a time of war to receive the training. Ultimately, he said, it’s a decision for the Ukraine’s military commanders to make. The Pentagon has no other plans to bring Ukrainian forces to the United States for training on additional weapons systems, Ryder added, though he would not rule out that possibility should a future need arise. The administration, he said, is remaining “flexible.”

Those Ukrainians coming to Fort Sill will train on their own, separate from U.S. personnel also learning to use the system there, Ryder said.

Putin has seethed at NATO nations’ involvement in the war, calling efforts by the United States and its allies to train and arm Ukraine acts of complicity. He has warned repeatedly that, if Russia feels threatened by outside forces, it won’t hesitate to retaliate. For its part, the Kremlin has turned to fellow U.S. adversaries, Iran and North Korea, for help replenishing its weapons stocks as Western sanctions have strained its defense industry.

A senior defense official, Laura Cooper, said last week that it would take several months before Ukrainian soldiers are qualified to use the system in combat. “Patriot is not an immediate-term capability,” she said. “But we will start that training very soon.”

Ryder acknowledged last week that the Pentagon had considered “a variety of options” for the training, to include holding it overseas.

The plan to conduct the training at Fort Sill, first reported by CNN, comes as the Biden administration makes a series of moves to transform the Ukrainian military from a force primarily capable of halting the Russian advance into one that can mount more successful offensive operations intended to reclaim occupied Ukrainian territory.

Senior U.S. officials have said that the Pentagon also is preparing to train hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers at a time at an American facility in Germany, focusing them on what the U.S. military calls combined-arms warfare. The concept integrates ground operations with long-range artillery, aviation and other weapons.

Biden in recent weeks also has approved a broad expansion of weapons transfers to Ukraine, with the United States agreeing to send heavily armored Bradley fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery and thousands of rounds of ammunition to support them. It’s an effort, Cooper said last week, intended to “change the dynamic” on the battlefield and enable Ukrainian forces to make greater progress along the war’s front lines, which have stayed mostly static for months.

The package approved Friday included more than $3 billion in military assistance, the single largest transfer since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The United States has approved the transfer of $24.2 billion in weapons since the invasion.