Spain has decided to transfer five PAC-2 missiles for Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine. These missiles are in service with the air defense regiment stationed in Marines in Valencia. This was reported by El País.
According to the Spanish publication, this decision was made during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Spain. At the same time, the transfer was not publicly announced. The Spanish Ministry of Defense is implementing a program to modernize them to the PAC3 version. The cost of one missile is estimated at three to four million dollars, and the total amount is about 20 million dollars.
The publication writes that the main problem now is not financing, but the inability of the American company Raytheon to cover the demand for missiles, which has increased sharply. In particular, the delivery of four batteries of Patriot missiles of configuration 3+, which Spain ordered for almost 1.5 billion euros, is constantly postponed and is now expected in 2031. Because of this, missiles remain an extremely scarce resource, including for Spanish military arsenals.
In January, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez first suggested the possibility of his country’s participation in a peacekeeping mission and the deployment of Spanish troops in Ukraine. After the meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing”, he stated that he would begin consultations with representatives of various parliamentary groups to determine what contribution Spain could make to the peace process.
