US supplies over 800 patriot interceptor missiles worth $3.26Bln to Ukraine since 2022

After including a Patriot air defence battery as part of the $1.85 billion military aid package to Ukraine in December 2022, the United States has since transferred at least 847 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles worth about $3.26 billion to Kiev, a Sputnik correspondent’s analysis of US Department of Defence (DOD) budget reports showed.
Following Russia’s successful test of the Oreshnik hypersonic missile on the battlefield in Ukraine in late November, the Netherlands has transferred additional Patriot batteries to Kiev.
The US has provided two additional Patriot batteries to Ukraine in subsequent military aid packages, after the initial delivery in December 2022.
However, even with the additional Patriot batteries available, Ukraine still had to rely on capable interceptor missiles, such as the most advanced variant, the MSE missile, for the air defence system to function properly.
In June, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said Ukraine would get prioritized shipments of interceptor missiles as soon as the systems were rolled off the assembly lines for the “next 16 months.”
At the same time, the US Army also announced in June that it had awarded a $4.5 billion multi-year contract to Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control to procure additional MSE missiles.
CLASSIFIED PROGRAM
Although the US never clearly specified the number of MSE missiles it had provided when announcing new military aid packages, a deep dive into the DOD’s annual budget reports, including the special reports on the transfer of funding from the Ukraine aid funds, could offer some clues on the amount of such missiles handed over to Kiev.
As part of the efforts to maintain transparency on how the military aid funding to Ukraine was being utilized, the office of the under secretary of defence, also known as the chief financial officer, under the DOD would publish a report whenever such aid funding was being transferred to the US military’s budget to replenish the weapons that were delivered to Ukraine.
Such reports described the transfer of military aid funding as “reprogramming actions in support of Ukraine.”
In the first “reprogramming action” report, released in January 2023, after the delivery of the Patriot battery to Ukraine in December, a mysterious $956 million additional funding was transferred from Ukraine aid funds to the US Army’s budget for fiscal year 2023 for the procurement of missiles to replace the ones that were sent to Kiev. However, the report did not specify the type of missiles being purchased, as the $956 million was listed as for a “classified program.”
However, a subsequent “reprogramming action” report released in April 2023 shed more light on what the $956 million was for. According to the report, an additional $340 million was added to the $1.993 billion budget for the procurement of MSE missiles for the US Army to replace the ones that were transferred to Ukraine.
However, according to the US Army’s original budget report for fiscal year 2023, it only requested $1.037 billion for the procurement of 252 MSE missiles.
The difference between the $1.993 billion and the $1.037 billion matched the mysterious $956 million added in January, which indicated that the “classified program” was indeed for MSE missiles transferred to Ukraine.
TWICE MORE THAN PLANNED
Although subsequent “reprogramming action” reports from the DOD continued to list a number of “classified programs” for the procurement of missiles to replenish the ones delivered to Ukraine, the US Army’s budget report for fiscal year 2025 offered more details on how many MSE missiles that were provided to Kiev.
According to the fiscal year 2025 report, the actual budget for the procurement of MSE missiles for fiscal year 2023 included “$1,442.764 million emergency supplemental funding to support the procurement of replacement missiles transferred to Ukraine.”
As a result, the budget for MSE missiles for fiscal year 2023 jumped from the original $1.037 billion to $2.47 billion.
The average unit cost of the MSE missile stood at around $3.85 million, according to budget reports.
This means that the additional $1.44 billion in “emergency supplemental funding” for fiscal year 2023 would allow the US Army to buy at least 375 MSE missiles to replace those sent to Ukraine.
Similarly, a DOD “reprogramming action” report released in August showed that the US Army’s budget for the procurement of MSE missiles for fiscal year 2024 jumped to $3.03 billion, up $1.818 billion from the $1.212 billion in the original budget request.
The additional $1.818 billion would allow the US Army to buy at least 472 MSE missiles for fiscal year 2024 to replace the ones that were delivered to Ukraine.
With enough additional funding to buy 375 MSE missiles for fiscal year 2023 and 472 MSE missiles for fiscal year 2024, the total additional funding of $3.26 billion for both fiscal years would allow the US Army to purchase at least 847 MSE missiles to replace that ones that were sent to Ukraine.
In comparison, the original budget reports showed that the US Army only planned to buy 252 MSE missiles for fiscal year 2023 and 230 MSE missiles for fiscal year 2024.
According to budget reports, the US Army’s goal, known as Army Acquisition Objective, is to procure 3,376 MSE missiles as the quantity required to “equip the US Army approved force and to sustain that force.”
In addition, during fiscal year 2023, the US Army received “$199.27 million emergency supplemental funding to support the procurement of replacement for a Radar, Launching Stations, and a Single Board Computer [of the Patriot system] transferred to Ukraine,” the budget report for fiscal year 2025 showed.