The Patriot tactical mobile missile system has been able to provide protection over a strategic part of central Slovakia with one complete battery for a few days now, and additional batteries will be deployed in the coming days. In total, two German and one Dutch battery will protect Slovakia in order to cover as much territory as possible.

"I thank the Allies for their swift response, which demonstrates the readiness and willingness of NATO member countries to ensure our defence and security. I want to reassure the population that the allied equipment, as well as personnel, are here to strengthen our defence and there is no reason to be concerned about their presence," Slovak Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said.

Picture: The Patriot tactical mobile missile system has been capable of providing protection over a strategic part of central Slovakia with one complete battery for a few days now, and additional batteries will be deployed in the coming days. | Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic

The Slovak Ministry of Defence, as recently announced, expects the deployment of additional systems of both Slovak and allied air defence in the near future, especially on the eastern border of Slovakia. It will prefer the existing infrastructure of the Slovak Armed Forces as deployment sites.

The Patriot system in the deployed PAC-3 version represents one of the most sophisticated air and missile defence systems. Patriot enables the destruction of enemy tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aircraft. The system was first deployed in combat in the MIM-104C PAC-2 version in 1990 during the Gulf War, and in Israel and Saudi Arabia, where it had 40% and 70% success rates, respectively, in destroying Iraqi Scud missiles and their variation, the Al-Hussein missiles.

The PAC-3 measures 5.2 m in length, has a diameter of 0.25 m and weighs 312 kg. The missile destroys the target either by a direct hit or with a fragmentation warhead that weighs about 73 kilograms. Thanks to the small nozzles, minor corrections can be made during flight to achieve a precise, direct hit. The powerful radar detects the target at a greater distance, allowing more time to make any flight corrections. The range is approximately 20 kilometres, with a maximum altitude range of 15 kilometres.

Slovakia is thus protected by truly advanced modern technology, which the Czech Republic currently lacks, but this will change after the delivery of the Israeli SPYDER systems from Rafael. However, the good news is that the first MADR (ELM-2084 MMR mobile 3D air defence radars) has already arrived in the Czech Republic at the end of February this year under a contract from the end of 2019.