Patriot missile manufacturers fear that Ukraine will be able to produce them faster and cheaper than the United States, so they are slowing down the transfer of licenses.
This was reported to The Atlantic by an unnamed representative of the US Republican Party.
According to the official, manufacturers Raytheon and Lockheed may officially claim that they are afraid of intellectual property theft. However, the real reason is that Ukraine will be able to improve the missiles to Patriot and then establish their mass production faster and much cheaper than American companies.
Ukraine is already sharing its military experience and technology with allies. In particular, Ukrainian specialists have helped the US counter Iranian drones in the Middle East, using the Sky Map system to detect them using acoustics and AI.
At the same time, The Atlantic believes that granting a license could be beneficial not only to Ukraine. After the war, Ukrainian enterprises could potentially produce Patriot missiles for the United States and other allies.
What preceded
On July 29, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that during his last meeting with Trump at the White House, he asked him to provide Ukraine with an emergency “winter package” of 300 Patriot interceptor missiles. The media reported that Trump refused, in part, due to a shortage of these missiles in his own country.
Later, at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on August 5, Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine had received a refusal from its partners to transfer additional anti-ballistic systems. He did not rule out that this could be in order for Ukraine to be “more compliant”.
According to the president, in the first half of 2026, the supply of missiles for Ukraineʼs air defense from partners decreased by three times compared to last year. The official reason, which the partners informed Kyiv, was the hostilities in the Middle East. President Donald Trump also stated that the United States itself needs these missiles.
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