On 2 September 2024, the Romanian government approved a legislative proposal to donate a Patriot surface-to-air missile system to Ukraine, according to a government press release. The proposal, which seeks to amend the law on ground-based air defense capabilities, will now be sent to Parliament for urgent approval.
Mihai Constantin, the government’s spokesperson, explained that after parliamentary approval, the government would be able to issue a decision to operationalize the donation, according to Digi24.
Earlier, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense specified that one of Romania’s seven Patriot systems, in a 3+ configuration purchased from the US, would be provided to Ukraine. Configuration 3+ is reportedly the most modern variant of the system and is used by the US and nearly 20 other allies. Of the seven systems, four have already arrived in Romania, with two operational, and the remaining three expected soon.
The donation will be made through an amendment to the 2017 law under which Romania bought the Patriot systems from the United States for nearly 4 billion dollars.
The Patriot Configuration 3+ features high-performance radar systems and advanced PAC-3 aerial interceptor missiles, capable of striking ballistic missiles at distances of up to 20 kilometers. Each battery contains four PAC-3 missiles, an improvement over the previous PAC-2 version which contained only one.
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