Trump says US will license Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles
Meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8, President Trump said the United States would give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air-defense systems . “We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots,” Trump said, adding that Washington would “show them how to do it.”
Zelenskyy had pressed at the summit for interceptors “as quick as possible, as much as possible,” reflecting Ukraine’s persistent shortage of the missiles it relies on to defend cities against Russian ballistic and drone barrages. Patriot interceptors are expensive and slow to build, and supply has not kept pace with the rate at which Ukraine expends them.
Licensing domestic production, rather than shipping finished interceptors, would over time reduce Ukraine’s dependence on limited US and allied stockpiles. The practical effect depends on details not yet spelled out — how quickly Ukraine could stand up manufacturing, which components remain US-controlled, and whether the arrangement extends to the interceptor missiles themselves or only the launch systems.