{"id":3334,"date":"2026-07-11T00:25:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3334"},"modified":"2026-07-11T00:25:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:25:02","slug":"experts-say-trumps-plan-to-license-patriot-missiles-for-ukraine-could-take-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3334","title":{"rendered":"Experts say Trump&#8217;s plan to license Patriot missiles for Ukraine could take years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">Defense experts cautioned that President Donald Trump&#8217;s offer to <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/Politics\/trump-zelenskyy-set-meet-nato-summit-turkey\/story?id=134561170\" dir=\"ltr\">license Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles<\/a> would take years to materialize and do little to address its immediate needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;The problem is that these things aren&#8217;t like flipping on a<!-- -->\u00a0<!-- -->light switch,&#8221; said Bradley Bowman, a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute that focuses on foreign policy and national security. &#8220;You can devote the money necessary, but that&#8217;s not going to manifest itself and increase production capacity for a significant period of time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Unfortunately, time is, in many cases, the thing you don&#8217;t have,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<div class=\"oLzSq QrHMO fnRUo pvsTF EhJPu vPlOC zNYgW OsTsW RMeqy daRVX ISNQ sKyCY eRftA acPPc MENS nFwaT MCnQE mEeeY SmBjI xegrY rPLsU iulOd NIuqO zzscu lzDCc aHUBM IEgzD OjMNy eQqcx SVqKB GQmdz jaoD VWDdR ONJdw vrZxD OnRTz gbbfF roDbV GPGwb oMlSS gfNzt oJhud eXZcf zhVlX \">\n<div>\n<div class=\"InlineImage GpQCA lZur asrEW \" data-testid=\"prism-inline-image\">\n<figure class=\"kzIjN GNmeK pYrtp dSqFO \" data-testid=\"prism-figure\">\n<div class=\"GpQCA lZur gIjeL \" data-testid=\"prism-ratio-frame\">\n<div class=\"FvQLF iLTd NqeUA UzzHi iWsMV \"><picture data-testid=\"prism-picture\"><source media=\"(max-width: 414px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9c09206d-fbb0-4843-b3e7-5eef3d505140\/patriot-ukraine-ap-jt-260709_1783623900631_hpMain.jpg?w=375, https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9c09206d-fbb0-4843-b3e7-5eef3d505140\/patriot-ukraine-ap-jt-260709_1783623900631_hpMain.jpg?w=750 2x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 415px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9c09206d-fbb0-4843-b3e7-5eef3d505140\/patriot-ukraine-ap-jt-260709_1783623900631_hpMain.jpg?w=750, https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9c09206d-fbb0-4843-b3e7-5eef3d505140\/patriot-ukraine-ap-jt-260709_1783623900631_hpMain.jpg?w=1500 2x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR SjwtZ hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9c09206d-fbb0-4843-b3e7-5eef3d505140\/patriot-ukraine-ap-jt-260709_1783623900631_hpMain.jpg\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div class=\"nMMea bNYiy Mjgpa dGwha DDmxa jgKNG RGHCC aBIU PriDW aiQHS lZur \" data-testid=\"prism-caption\">\n<p><span class=\"hsDdd OOSI GpQCA lZur VlFaz \" data-testid=\"prism-truncate\"><span><span class=\"gtOSm FbbUW tUtYa vOCwz EQwFq yCufu eEak Qmvg nyTIa SRXVc vzLa jgBfc WXDas CiUCW kqbG zrdEG txGfn ygKVe BbezD UOtxr CVfpq xijV soGRS XgdC sEIlf daWqJ \">In this Aug. 4, 2024, file photo, Ukrainian Air Force&#8217;s F-16 fighter jets fly over a Patriot Air and Missile Defense System in an undisclosed location in Ukraine.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"gtOSm FbbUW tUtYa vOCwz EQwFq yCufu eEak Qmvg nyTIa SRXVc vzLa jgBfc WXDas CiUCW kqbG zrdEG txGfn ygKVe BbezD UOtxr CVfpq xijV soGRS XgdC sEIlf daWqJ YNujN JGtjI aZFDu rkKLh \">Efrem Lukatsky\/AP Photo, FILE<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump&#8217;s comments, made Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit, are a major victory for Ukrainian President Volodymyr<!-- -->\u00a0<!-- -->Zelenskyy, who has long raised alarm bells about the rapid depletion of U.S. Patriot PAC-3 interceptor<!-- -->\u00a0<!-- -->missiles &#8212;<!-- -->\u00a0<!-- -->widely considered the most effective tool to counter Russian missiles and drones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Russia has unleashed <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/International\/dozens-ukrainian-drones-target-moscow-mayor-zelenskyy-vows\/story?id=134540012\" dir=\"ltr\">waves of missile and drone attacks<\/a> on Kyiv in recent months, including a barrage of strikes on Monday. The Ukrainian air force said it was unable to intercept any of the missiles in the Monday attack, pointing to a shortage of interceptors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Several national security experts said granting the license appeared to be an optics play from the White House and warned it wouldn&#8217;t address Ukraine&#8217;s imminent needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Producing Patriot missiles in Ukraine, they said, would take years and require the nation\u200b to overcome several logistical obstacles, including supply chain hurdles and high security standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The interceptors are made in the U.S. by defense giant Lockheed Martin, which produced around 620 Patriot missiles last year. But the missiles are being used in Ukraine and the Middle East at a much faster pace than Lockheed can make them. That shortage is prompting efforts to speed production and \u200bbuild facilities outside the U.S. &#8212; in concert with a wider push for Europe to reduce its reliance on U.S. defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Just Wednesday, Lockheed confirmed a Reuters report that it was exploring a maintenance facility in Europe for Patriot missiles in partnership with Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden, saying in a press release that the new facility would &#8220;strengthen NATO&#8217;s integrated air and missile defense readiness by providing in-region maintenance and sustainment capabilities that help keep PAC-3 missiles ready, reliable and rapidly deployable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"vPZug ZqdKL xcLAU bunQU uhXXI PjNjV lNbol LBPRq \">Building capacity could take years<\/h3>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The road to production, however, is long. In 2024, Germany began the process of developing the less-advanced variant of the Patriot &#8212; the PAC-2 GEM-T interceptors &#8212; but production isn&#8217;t expected until 2027, the European manufacturer said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Though Ukraine might be able to move faster, building up capacity would still take years. Trump said on Wednesday that he had not yet notified manufacturers of the decision to grant a license for Ukraine.<\/p>\n<div class=\"oLzSq QrHMO fnRUo pvsTF EhJPu vPlOC zNYgW OsTsW RMeqy daRVX ISNQ sKyCY eRftA acPPc MENS nFwaT MCnQE mEeeY SmBjI xegrY rPLsU iulOd NIuqO zzscu lzDCc aHUBM IEgzD OjMNy eQqcx SVqKB GQmdz jaoD VWDdR ONJdw vrZxD OnRTz gbbfF roDbV GPGwb oMlSS gfNzt oJhud eXZcf zhVlX \">\n<div>\n<div class=\"InlineImage GpQCA lZur asrEW \" data-testid=\"prism-inline-image\">\n<figure class=\"kzIjN GNmeK pYrtp dSqFO \" data-testid=\"prism-figure\">\n<div class=\"GpQCA lZur gIjeL \" data-testid=\"prism-ratio-frame\">\n<div class=\"FvQLF iLTd NqeUA UzzHi iWsMV \"><picture data-testid=\"prism-picture\"><source media=\"(max-width: 414px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9a2f8ee3-e825-46a5-a554-d335c28239e9\/nato-6-rt-gmh-260708_1783515378931_hpMain.jpg?w=375, https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9a2f8ee3-e825-46a5-a554-d335c28239e9\/nato-6-rt-gmh-260708_1783515378931_hpMain.jpg?w=750 2x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 415px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9a2f8ee3-e825-46a5-a554-d335c28239e9\/nato-6-rt-gmh-260708_1783515378931_hpMain.jpg?w=750, https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9a2f8ee3-e825-46a5-a554-d335c28239e9\/nato-6-rt-gmh-260708_1783515378931_hpMain.jpg?w=1500 2x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR SjwtZ hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9a2f8ee3-e825-46a5-a554-d335c28239e9\/nato-6-rt-gmh-260708_1783515378931_hpMain.jpg\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div class=\"nMMea bNYiy Mjgpa dGwha DDmxa jgKNG RGHCC aBIU PriDW aiQHS lZur \" data-testid=\"prism-caption\">\n<p><span class=\"hsDdd OOSI GpQCA lZur VlFaz \" data-testid=\"prism-truncate\"><span><span class=\"gtOSm FbbUW tUtYa vOCwz EQwFq yCufu eEak Qmvg nyTIa SRXVc vzLa jgBfc WXDas CiUCW kqbG zrdEG txGfn ygKVe BbezD UOtxr CVfpq xijV soGRS XgdC sEIlf daWqJ \">President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy alongside the NATO leaders summit at the Bestepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"gtOSm FbbUW tUtYa vOCwz EQwFq yCufu eEak Qmvg nyTIa SRXVc vzLa jgBfc WXDas CiUCW kqbG zrdEG txGfn ygKVe BbezD UOtxr CVfpq xijV soGRS XgdC sEIlf daWqJ YNujN JGtjI aZFDu rkKLh \">Jonathan Ernst\/Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;The White House likes grand gestures, and this would qualify as a grand gesture,&#8221; said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic <!-- -->&amp;<!-- --> International Studies. &#8220;It sounds like missiles are going to start coming out of the factory in a couple of months, but that&#8217;s not going to happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Olha Stefanishyna expressed optimism after the meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, saying Ukraine welcomed the White House&#8217;s &#8220;readiness to cooperate on Patriot missile capabilities&#8221; and has &#8220;always wanted the US to be our main partner in this.&#8221; However, she clarified that no firm commitments had been made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We look forward to turning these positive signals into concrete decisions,&#8221; Stefanishyna wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"vPZug ZqdKL xcLAU bunQU uhXXI PjNjV lNbol LBPRq \">Expert: Urgency to supply Patriots could decrease<\/h3>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Some experts went further, saying the license might actually hurt Ukraine by letting the U.S. off the hook for providing Patriot missiles in the short term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Jennifer Kavanagh, a military analyst at the national security and foreign policy think tank Defense Priorities, said the licensing arrangement might seem like a win-win for the U.S. and Ukraine but is, in fact, a &#8220;lose-lose.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;If the solution to Ukraine&#8217;s air defense problem is that we&#8217;re going to give them licenses, it suggests that the urgency of actually getting them Patriot missiles could go down &#8212;<!-- -->\u00a0<!-- -->it could end up being a net negative for Ukraine&#8217;s near-term security,&#8221; Kavanagh said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Trump hinted at as much on Wednesday when asked if the U.S. would supply Patriot missiles to Ukraine while it builds out its own capacity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We have Patriots, but we don&#8217;t have that many. We need them for ourselves, too,&#8221; Trump said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Zelenskyy told reporters on Thursday that Ukraine expects to receive missiles for Patriot systems from the U.S. and some European partners soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;In the coming days, we will receive a package from the United States of America, and I also had separate agreements with the Europeans. There are no dates there yet, but there will be additional PAC-3s,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"vPZug ZqdKL xcLAU bunQU uhXXI PjNjV lNbol LBPRq \">Limited production capacity<\/h3>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The topline number of Patriot missiles &#8212; sophisticated devices with a number of subcomponents &#8212; is also capped by limited production capacity down the supply chain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Unless Ukraine is building all the components themselves, then it&#8217;s going to have to get those from the United States, which means that those components won&#8217;t be available for production in the United States,&#8221; Cancian said.<!-- -->\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Kavanagh said more challenges await Ukraine down the road, too. In order to produce the Patriot technology, Ukrainian facilities would have to meet U.S. security requirements. Though Kavanagh said the president can waive that review process, doing so would expose sensitive technology to Russian intelligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;There&#8217;s serious risks of turning over this type of technology to Ukraine, in the sense that it will be, in my view, highly likely that that means that Russia will then eventually have access to the tactical specifications of Patriot missiles, which would obviously put U.S. forces at risk,&#8221; Kavanagh said.<!-- -->\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">If Ukraine did get the license and start producing Patriot missiles, those facilities would immediately be targeted by Russia &#8212; and Ukraine may then need more interceptors in order to protect the development sites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;A top priority for Russia would be to find those facilities and destroy them, and that&#8217;s going to be one more thing that Ukraine will have to protect &#8212; which, ironically, will increase their requirement for air missile-defense-capacity capability,&#8221; Bowman said.<!-- -->\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Practical realities aside, scholars called the licensing proposal as a signal of increased buy-in from the White House, whose support for Ukraine has shifted repeatedly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Franz-Stefan Gady at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan policy organization, wrote in a statement that the promise was &#8220;welcome&#8221; and &#8220;signals durable US commitment to Ukraine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">&#8220;Even if this is just a grand gesture that never produces anything, as an indicator of a much more open relationship, a more helpful relationship with Ukraine, that&#8217;s really important,&#8221; Cancian added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defense experts cautioned that President Donald Trump&#8217;s offer to license Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles would take years to materialize and do little to address its immediate needs. &#8220;The problem is that these things aren&#8217;t like flipping on a\u00a0light switch,&#8221; said Bradley Bowman, a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit, nonpartisan&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/9c09206d-fbb0-4843-b3e7-5eef3d505140\/patriot-ukraine-ap-jt-260709_1783623900631_hpMain_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}