US President Donald Trump has offered to give Ukraine the right to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, which could help Kyiv defend against Russia’s ballistic missile attacks.
“We are gonna give you a licence to make Patriots,” Trump told Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky during Wednesday’s Nato summit in Ankara. “I think they can produce them very quickly once we explain it.”
He said he had not yet informed defence manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Raytheon of his decision, “but that’ll work out alright”.
Patriots detect and intercept missiles and are regarded as one of the world’s best air defence systems – and the most expensive: a single battery, with missiles, is worth around $1bn (£740m).
It also has lengthy production times, with only 600 missiles produced per year, according to the US Department of Defence.
The US is reluctant to part with any, given that it used more than half of its stockpile during its war with Iran earlier this year, according to the US-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“We have Patriots, but we don’t have that many. We need them for ourselves too,” Trump said.