The Ukrainians are set to start training on the Patriot rocket system in the United States as quickly as next week, 2 United States authorities acquainted with the matter inform CNN.
The training program will occur at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where the United States performs its own training on operating and keeping the sophisticated air defense system. Fort Sill is among the Army’s 4 standard training places and house to the service’s field weapons school, which has actually been training service members for more than a century.
The training for the Ukrainians on the intricate system is anticipated to take “numerous months,” stated Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia.
” I’m not going to have the ability to provide you a particular timeframe for the conclusion of the training,” Cooper stated Friday.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder stated Thursday that the United States was taking a look at a range of alternatives for where to carry out the Patriot rocket training “to consist of possible training here in the United States, overseas, or a mix of both.”.
The United States revealed it was sending out Ukraine the Patriot rocket system in late December when Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky went to Washington and met United States President Joe Biden.
Germany just recently revealed that it was sending out Ukraine a 2nd Patriot rocket system from its own stock.
This story is breaking and will be upgraded.
Source: CNN.