US Army instructors say Ukrainian soldiers were 'amazing' at mastering the Patriots they've used to shoot down Putin's overhyped missiles

• Ukrainian soldiers spent 10 weeks learning to use the US military's Patriot air-defense system.
• US Army instructors at Fort Sill told Business Insider the Ukrainians were "amazing" students.
• Kyiv's troops have since used the system to shoot down Russia's overrated Kinzhal missiles.

The American-made MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system has proved to be a defensive workhorse for Ukraine since it first arrived in the country nearly a year ago.

Kyiv's forces have since found resounding success with the Patriot, which is considered to be one of the world's most capable and advanced air-defense assets. They have used it to shoot down some of Russia's more deadly — but also somewhat overhyped — aerial threats. Though impressive, these accomplishments haven't necessarily come as a surprise to the Americans military personnel who helped teach the Ukrainians how to use the system.

Business Insider recently visited Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where Patriot training took place last year, and spoke with two US Army instructors who were involved in the program. They described the Ukrainian soldiers as "awesome" students and "amazing" learners with a lot of drive to learn how to operate the system.

The US first indicated that it was prepared to send Patriot systems to Ukraine in December 2022, and several weeks later, in January, a group of 65 Ukrainians arrived at Fort Sill, home to the schoolhouse where the Army trains US and allied troops to use the missile system.

What would normally be a 19-week-long training scheme was squeezed into just 10 weeks for the Ukrainians, given the urgency of the air-defense situation back home. The 65 students also fell slightly short of the 72-74 soldiers who typically man a Patriot battery.

"They were experienced air defenders and they wanted to learn the system, so they had the overall concept," retired Army 1st Sgt Kevin McConkey, now the supervisor of instruction and training at the schoolhouse, told BI. "They've used air-defense systems in Ukraine — not Patriot, but different ones. They had the concept of how it works, so they were very good."

McConkey said once the Americans and the Ukrainians were able to get past the language barrier, "everything really started to come together." The soldiers actually wanted a more in-depth training on the system, he added, but there wasn't enough time.

The focus was getting the Ukrainians to be able use the system, learn to maintain it, and understand how to fix it if something broke.

"They would push," McConkey said. "We were doing 10 hours a day, including Saturdays, to fit the time schedule that they needed to get back to go use this equipment."

Staff Sgt. Austin Christie, one of the instructors at the schoolhouse, told BI that he taught the Ukrainians how to operate the Patriot "by the books," but he also taught them the quickest way to use the system if "something hits the fan," or if they quickly found themselves in combat.

Underscoring the deep experience of some of the soldiers, Christie said one student fought during Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and eventually left the military, only to rejoin after the full-scale war began in 2022.

Another Ukrainian was an electrical engineer before he joined the military during the war, but when it came time to learn how to use the Patriot's engagement control station, the student was "way above" what he was being taught, McConkey said.

Still, despite the high levels of experience, they were eager to learn as much as possible.

"The training for the Ukrainians was intense, and it was a lot," McConkey said. "It was condensed so we could get them trained, but it was rewarding to get them trained up and let them go and defend their country."

The first Patriot battery arrived in Ukraine in April 2023, and over the past year, Kyiv's forces have relied heavily on the weapon system to help protect their skies from scores of Russian threats like advanced missiles and fighter jets.

Probably the most notable of the Patriot's achievements in Ukraine is its success against the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, an air-launched ballistic missile that Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top military officials in Moscow have said is basically unstoppable and impossible to intercept.

Russia has often described the Kinzhal as a hypersonic weapon. This, however, is a bit misleading because although it can reach hypersonic speeds (at least five times the speed of sound), it seems to lack some of the key characteristics of what is normally considered to be a hypersonic missile. The Kinzhal is actually just an air-launched ballistic missile based on the 9K720 Iskander.

Ukraine initially struggled against the Kinzhals, but all that changed with the initial arrival of the Patriot. In May of last year, the Pentagon confirmed Ukraine had shot one down with a Patriot interceptor missile. As of early January, per official statements from Kyiv, Ukrainian forces had used the system to shoot down more than two dozen of the missiles.

Now, Ukraine currently operates five long-range Patriot batteries, which have been sent by the US, Germany, and the Netherlands, and work alongside other Soviet-era and Western-provided air-defense systems.

But despite the many capabilities that Ukraine has in its arsenal, additional air-defense systems and ammunition are a consistent request. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long sought greater firepower so his troops can continue to defend their skies from unrelenting Russian attacks.

"More air defense systems and other means of destruction of Russian aviation bring peace closer," Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation on Sunday. "I am grateful to everyone in the world who helps us with this."