The US President Donald Trump plans to ask American defense companies to organize licensed weapons production in Europe and Ukraine.
Bloomberg writes about this, citing unnamed officials.
The publication notes that Ukraine needs air defense assets, including American Patriot interceptor missiles, to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles.
But because the US has exhausted its stockpiles in Iran and it takes time to build up capacity, Trump told allies at the G7 summit in France that he would consider granting licenses to produce missiles in Europe and Ukraine.
“They [Ukraine and Europe] would like to be able to do this, we will look into this issue,” the US president told reporters at the G7 summit.
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that Trump “insisted on the mobilization of the American defense industry and the ability to supply such equipment”. And German Chancellor Friedrich Merz noted that the countries involved would discuss specific licenses in detail.
The United States already manufactures some weapons under license abroad—for example, Patriot missiles in Germany. However, in general, the United States strictly controls its licensing agreements due to intellectual property and supply chain protections.
- Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump discussed licenses for the production of anti-ballistic air defense systems in Ukraine. And, according to Zelensky, Trump reacted positively to this idea.
- And the G7 leaders said in a joint statement following the summit that they were ready to consider transferring licenses to Ukraine that would help it produce its own interceptor missiles and other weapons.
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