Poland receives preliminary approval from the US to produce missiles for “Patriot”

Poland has received preliminary approval from the US State Department to produce PAC-3 missiles for “Patriot” air defense systems.

This was stated by the countryʼs Deputy Minister of Defense Cezary Tomczyk, writes RMF24.

Tomczyk said that his country purchases a large amount of equipment abroad and wants the production of components or related service to be localized in Poland.

The Patriot missiles are planned to be produced at Polish defense sector enterprises. According to Tomczyk, this will be an important step in strengthening the countryʼs military capabilities.

The Deputy Head of the Polish Ministry of Defense noted that at first the Americans were skeptical about the Poles being able to produce PAC-3 missiles for Patriot systems. However, after the visit of the Polish delegation to the United States, the American side became more open to cooperation. All due to the growing demand and the reduction of American stocks of these missiles.

Currently, the Polish army is already using two Patriot batteries and is awaiting the delivery of six more systems.

In addition, Washington is interested in Poland producing long-range missiles for HIMARS systems and Hellfire missiles, which are used, in particular, on Apache helicopters.

Missiles for Patriot

PAC-3 is a modern interceptor of the Patriot air defense system, which is designed not only to shoot down a target, but also to destroy it with a direct hit. It differs from older versions in that it does not explode next to the target, but crashes into it at high speed. With such a strike, the energy is enough to destroy the warhead. The main purpose of these missiles is ballistics. Ukraine is currently in critical need of these missiles.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that in just a few days of war in the Middle East, countries used more than 800 PAC-3 missiles. Ukraine has never had so many missiles at one time.

On April 3, following his visit to the Middle East, the president announced that he had agreed with some partners to supply Ukraine with PAC-3 Patriot missiles. All that remained was to obtain the consent of the United States. On April 10, Zelensky said that Ukraine had recently received a new batch of Patriot missiles.

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