Despite dwindling U.S. stockpiles, President Donald Trump said that he wants to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptor missiles during his visit to Turkey on Wednesday.
Trump made the comments about Patriot missile licensing while talking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during their televised meeting at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey. Patriot missile interceptors are in short supply as they have been continuously used in the Russo-Ukrainian War and the Iran War, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The Department of War and the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
“A little birdie told me this, about the fact that we’ll give them [Ukraine] the right to make Patriots,” Trump said during his meeting with Zelenskyy. “We’ll show them how to do it. It’s very complex, actually … We’re gonna give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool, right?”
President Trump on showing Ukraine how to make Patriot Missile Interceptors: “We’ll show them how to do it..” he said. “This way he can’t complain we’re not giving them, make them yourself.” pic.twitter.com/1Zusk0zEjO
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 8, 2026
“Today’s meeting sent several important strategic signals about Ukraine’s ongoing collaboration with our American partners. The readiness to cooperate on Patriot missile capabilities and move forward on drone deal reflects a shared understanding that our security cooperation is in the strategic interests of both countries,” Olga Stefanishyna, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Strengthen[ing] defense cooperation through joint production, and licensing will accelerate delivery of essential weapons to deter threats and maintain U.S. global leadership in defense technology. At the same time, it will free up U.S. defense capacity to backfill and modernize U.S. forces while meeting urgent foreign demand.”
Patriots currently have an average delivery time of 42 months, according to the CSIS report. Trump acknowledged the fact that it takes a long time to produce Patriot missiles, but said that the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, is building new factories to expedite this process.
“The company that makes them, which is building now four plants. You know all of our companies will be able to do this in two to three months. If you order a Patriot, now you have to wait a long time for them,” Trump said.
RTX’s Raytheon unit produces the Patriot air and missile defense system, which includes radars, launchers and command-and-control technology, while Lockheed Martin produces the PAC-3 family of interceptor missiles that are fired from Patriot batteries to defeat incoming threats.
Lockheed Martin did sign a deal with the Department of War to increase “annual capacity from approximately 600 to 2,000 in a seven-year agreement,” according to a press release from the company on Jan. 6.
RTX, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin did not respond to a request for comment.
Since the Iran war began, the U.S. military has used somewhere between 45% and 61% of its Patriot missiles, according to a CSIS report. Between 1,060 and 1,430 of the 2,330 Patriot missiles in the stockpile have been expended.
However, these numbers were reported by CSIS on April 21, 2026, so the current stockpiles have likely depleted even further. The Department of War has not confirmed the estimates of depleted missiles.
Patriot missile interceptor stockpiles “will take three or more years from today [April 21] to return to prewar inventory levels,” according to a separate CSIS report.
Other key systems that the U.S. military is lacking are the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors. U.S. THAAD system stockpiles have been heavily depleted in the Iran war, too.
Between 52% and 80% of the THAAD munitions stockpiles have already been expended in the Iran war, according to the CSIS report, which states that between 190 and 290 of the 360 THAAD munitions in the stockpile have been depleted so far, citing data from the 2027 defense budget.
“Our technologies, expertise, and battlefield experience can significantly contribute to collective security. We highly value the United States’ continued engagement in advancing a path toward a just and lasting peace,” Stefanisha told the DCNF. “And as we work together on this, it’s crucial that Ukraine gets the means (antiballistic missiles) to protect its people and critical infrastructure today. We look forward to turning these positive signals into concrete decisions.”
(DCNF)
