Lockheed eyes fresh PAC-3 interceptor production options for Ukraine, Europe

Lockheed Martin is weighing new industry partnerships to produce urgently needed PAC-3 Patriot interceptors in Europe, an avenue that could also help fill Ukraine’s shortfalls, a company executive said.

Discussions about producing more Patriot interceptors outside the United States have picked up steam since Ukrainian leaders said over the summer they were promised by the Trump administration a license to make them in Ukraine to defend against Russian missile and drone barrages.

U.S. government officials are still expected to make a decision, which could entail the production of PAC-2 interceptors, made by Raytheon, or Lockheed’s PAC-3.

“From a PAC-3 perspective, we’re absolutely willing to talk to Ukraine,” Jason Reynolds, vice president and general manager of the company’s integrated air and missile defense division, told Defense News in an interview at the Association of the United States Army annual convention in Washington, DC.

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“It’s really a matter of what’s their industrial capability, what’s the parts availability, those types of things,” he continued. “It might be something like an ACE, as opposed to an MSE, that we would start with for Ukraine.”

Lockheed announced development of an ACE variant during the summer, billing it as a cheaper option against relatively simple threats — at half the cost of an MSE missile designed to go against sophisticated missiles. The new interceptor will make do with a single-pulse motor, compared with a dual-pulse of the MSE interceptor, and utilize a blast fragmentation warhead, versus the direct hit-to-kill mechanics of the MSE missile.

Reynolds cautioned that setting up interceptor missile production of whatever variant in Ukraine comes with the risk of Russian attacks on the plant.

“The first question is, ‘Can we build a factory that’s survivable in a war zone?’” he said.

That’s why the company is considering options to make them in nearby safe countries instead, and quickly ferrying them into Ukraine as they are needed.

“There is a whole number of countries that are interested in potentially producing ACE,” Reynolds said. “If we can get that started, get the supply chain started and then migrate to Ukraine as an option, that would make a lot of sense to me.”

Germany is among the countries where leaders have offered to host PAC-3 production. Raytheon, in partnership with MBDA, already makes the PAC-2 product line in the country.

For an eventual PAC-3 production, Lockheed is considering partnering with Diehl Defence, with which there is a cooperation agreement on interceptor parts in place dating from October 2025, Reynolds said.

“If we were to go forward with exploring any kind of production in Germany, we would likely do that with a company like Diehl,” he told Defense News.

A Diehl spokesperson confirmed consultations ongoing with Lockheed Martin, pointing to the October 2025 agreement. The German company has been ramping up its production capabilities at all its sites, the spokesperson added.

A new facility is in the works in Lübben, Brandenburg, which comes with requisite licensing for explosives handling because it was used by the German Democratic Republic for military equipment manufacturing.

The U.S. government has the final say about where sensitive defense products can be produced outside the United States, including Patriot air-defense equipment.

“We at Lockheed don’t have the authority to just build factories wherever we want,” Reynolds noted.

Source: www.defensenews.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.