Deep Intel on PATRIOT Missiles and Why EVERYONE Wants Them

Patriot missiles have been a hot-button topic throughout the Ukraine war. Ukraine wants as many as it can get its hands on. Russia has previously warned the West not to supply them because it knows how powerful these missiles are. The West ignored that particular red line. Still, Ukraine’s call for Patriot missiles hasn’t ended.
And there’s a good reason why.
Patriots are the best tool Ukraine has to defend itself against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aerial bombardments. But what are Patriot missiles? And why does everybody, including Ukraine, want them? This video examines the answers to those questions, starting with the big reason Patriots are so vital:
There is no better air defense missile for tackling ballistic missile threats.
A ballistic missile is a rocket-propelled self-guided missile that follows a ballistic trajectory to its target. What that means is that the missiles essentially travel in a huge arc, as they’re fired so high into the sky that most air defense systems can’t target them. Eventually, the missile starts coming back down to Earth, guided by internal systems, at devastatingly high speeds. That makes them hard to hit even in their terminal phase, when they would be coming within range of typical air defenses.
Ballistic missiles are also powerful and can be loaded with explosive, chemical, biological, and, in some cases, nuclear warheads. They’re launchable from land, sea, or air, depending on the type of missile, and they represent a massive threat to any nation that’s forced to confront them.
Russia has a lot of ballistic missiles.
Precisely how many depends on the source.
On June 21, The Kyiv Independent reported that Russia’s current weapons arsenal includes 1,950 missiles, along with many more thousands of drones. Not all of these are ballistic missiles. But The Kyiv Independent did report that among the 1,950 of 500 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, 150 of Russia’s hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, and up to 60 KN-23 ballistic missiles. The latter are made in North Korea and have likely been supplied to Putin thanks to his cooperative defense agreement with the otherwise isolated nation.
Slightly different numbers were reported by Defense Express a month later. On July 13, it said that data provided by Ukraine’s defense intelligence networks suggested that Russia has 250 Iskander-Ms and 50 KN-23s, rather than 500 and 60 respectively. That would give Russia a stockpile of 300 short-range ballistic missiles it could use against Ukraine, which Russia is supporting with around 60 mobile launchers that it has deployed close to the border it shares with Ukraine.
In reality, the true stockpile number doesn’t matter as much as the simple fact that Russia has a stockpile of ballistic missiles at all.
And it uses those missiles to hurt Ukraine.
Perhaps the most devastating example of how Russia uses its ballistic missiles came in April when Russia launched a pair of its Iskander missiles at Sumy. The strike was successful, from the Russian perspective. It killed at least 34 people and injured 117 more, including 15 children, the BBC reported at the time. The attack was notable not only because Russia targeted a Ukrainian city with its missiles, as it’s been doing that for a long time, but because the attack occurred on Palm Sunday. A day of religious celebration was turned into one of mourning in Sumy thanks to Russia’s Iskanders.
And that leads back to Patriot missiles.
As The Kyiv Independent said on July 14, ballistic missiles don’t follow the flat trajectory a cruise missile follows. They travel in arcs, traveling up into the Earth’s atmosphere before they come hurtling back down, as mentioned before. This ballistic trajectory allows the missiles to easily break the sound barrier with their speed, making them incredibly difficult to intercept without special missiles designed specifically to stop ballistic missiles in their tracks.
That’s what Patriot missiles are designed to do.
Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the missile, touts the PAC-3, or Patriot Advanced Capability-3, MSE as as “the world’s most advanced air defense missile.” It’s not wrong. Patriot missiles are designed to be capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, as well as being versatile enough to tackle cruise missiles and aircraft up to and including fast-moving fighter jets. Defense expert Andrii Kharuk explains more when speaking to The Kyiv Independent. “The Patriot's advantage is its open architecture, which allows for the use of different weapons and even different radars,” he says. That covers the battery and launchers, along with their versatility.
But what about the Patriot missiles themselves?
Effectiveness against ballistic missiles all depends on which version of the Patriot missile is being used – the PAC-2 or the PAC-3.
The PAC-2 is the legacy version of the Patriot missile, though it’s still a dangerous prospect for Russia’s ballistic missiles. Air and Space explains that it’s a one-stage solid-fuel interceptor missile that’s launched from the ground and is typically packed with a high-explosive warhead. Key to its capabilities are its extremely high speed and its ability to hit targets at high altitudes. The PAC-2 can hit speeds of over 3,500 miles per hour, which matches or exceeds the speed of most ballistic missiles. The PAC-2 can also land a hit at an altitude of up to 20 miles.
Remember what was mentioned earlier about the ballistic trajectory of the missiles Ukraine needs to defend itself against earlier. The Iskander-M can reach altitudes between 3.7 and 31 miles. So, a PAC-2 might not be able to hit these missiles at the top of their arcs. But it can travel high enough, over a range of 60 miles, to destroy Iskanders long before they have any chance to crash down onto a ground target.
The PAC-2 entered service in 2002 and proved its utility during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
But the U.S. wanted a better version of the Patriot missile.
A version that could hit harder and more accurately to provide an even greater defense against an enemy’s ballistic missile threat.
That’s what it got with the PAC-3.
Like the PAC-2, the PAC-3 is an interceptor missile designed to tackle ballistic missile threats. And on the surface, it may not seem like much of an upgrade over its predecessor. In some cases, it could even be seen as a downgrade. For instance, the PAC-3 has a shorter range than the PAC-2, as it’s only able to travel between 12 and 22 miles to strike a target. That creates a little more risk for the user as they have to allow an incoming ballistic threat to get closer before striking against it.
The PAC-3 makes up for the slight drawback with a host of features that make it a better choice than the PAC-2. Those features start with the hit-to-kill approach the missile takes. Under this approach, the PAC-3 doesn’t rely on an explosive warhead to destroy an incoming target. Instead, it relies on kinetic energy generated when the missile strikes its target to destroy said target. That is in direct contrast to the PAC-2, which The Kyiv Independent explains packs a blast-fragmentation warhead.
The PAC-2 explodes near a target.
The PAC-3 runs right through it, decimating the target directly.
The PAC-3 is also capable of hitting Mach 5, which works out to about 3,836 miles per hour. That’s a touch faster than the PAC-2, and every little bit of extra speed helps when faced with incoming ballistic missiles. It also features an active radar seeker in its nose, allowing it to track and engage an incoming target autonomously. Mid-course updates from the Patriot battery's ground-based radar systems aid this seeker, ensuring the PAC-3 is almost guaranteed to score a direct hit on its target.
There’s also the little matter of the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement, of MSE, to consider. The most advanced version of the PAC-3, the MSE increases the range of the base version of the missile, along with allowing it to hit incoming threats at higher altitudes. The Kyiv Independent says that makes it the ideal choice for use against the Iskander, KN-23, and Kinzhal ballistic missiles Russia has in its arsenal.
So, there are two reasons why everybody wants the Patriot missiles, especially in Europe.
Russia presents a significant ballistic missile threat, as it’s proven several times during the Ukraine war. It’s also worth noting that Russia has intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads beyond the short-range ballistic missiles already mentioned. Countering that threat is a priority for every European nation, especially as many in NATO believe that Russia is going to set its sights beyond Ukraine if Putin’s invasion is successful. NATO chief Mark Rutte delivered that very warning back in June, noting that Russia could be ready to launch a strike against the defense collective within the next five years.
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“Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years. Five years. Let’s not kid ourselves. We are all on the eastern flank now. “
That need for a defense against ballistic missiles explains the second reason why everybody wants Patriot missiles – Patriots are specifically designed to tackle the ballistic threat. Those are in short supply in Europe, though there are others. Germany’s IRIS-T system, for instance, can tackle ballistic threats. However, the Patriot is the best of the bunch, with many others only being suitable for cruise missiles, drones, and aircraft.
So, there’s the need and the product.
And that leads to the third reason why everybody wants to get their hands on Patriot missiles right now:
Supply isn’t matching demand.
This is evident in the actions the U.S. took earlier in July. The country chose to briefly pause the delivery of some Patriot missiles that had been designated for Ukraine during the Joe Biden administration amidst U.S. concerns about its own Patriot missile supplies. That pause came as news broke that the Pentagon only had about 25% of the Patriot missiles it would need for all of its upcoming military plans. That shortfall happened in the wake of the U.S. intervention in Iran, which saw it bomb several key Iranian nuclear sites in a mission dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer. Learn more about that mission in our video covering the event.
While that mission was generally a success, it also prompted responses from Iran against which the U.S. had to defend. That ate into America’s stockpiles, The Guardian reported on July 8, leading to the pause. In truth, the problem existed before the Iran mission. The Trump administration was looking into America’s lowering stockpiles of Patriot missiles back in February, with those deliberations accelerating after Trump okayed a long series of airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
The pause has since been lifted.
Patriot missiles are again on their way to Ukraine.
But even then, Ukraine isn’t getting anywhere near as many as it needs. The Kyiv Independent says that the U.S. has agreed to send 10 Patriot missiles to Ukraine at a cost of around $4 million per unit. That’s something. But Kharuk says that it’s “a drop in the ocean” compared to what Ukraine needs to defend its skies against Russia’s ballistic missiles. “Firing at ballistic targets typically requires the launch of two missiles at once to shoot them down accurately,” Kharuk adds. Some simple math tells us that 10 Patriot missiles can take out five Russian ballistic missiles if Kharuk is accurate.
Given that Russia has stockpiles of ballistic missiles that number in the hundreds, it’s clear why 10 is a drop in the ocean.
The U.S. isn’t immune to this problem.
Refocusing on Iran again: According to The Guardian, Iran has around 1,000 ballistic missiles it could choose to use against America’s bases in the Middle East if that conflict reignites. The U.S. will be hoping it won’t. It’s now pushing for peace in the Middle East after Operation Midnight Hammer. But if Iran starts firing missiles, the U.S. only builds around 600 Patriot missiles per year to counter them. Assuming the numbers provided by both Kharuk and The Guardian are accurate, that means the U.S. would need a little over three years to manufacture enough Patriots to cover all of Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles.
And remember that Iran is just one of the countries that could represent a threat to the U.S. China and Russia also have ballistic missiles. So do other potential Western enemies, including Belarus, North Korea, and Pakistan. Even the Houthis in Yemen have several types of ballistic missiles, including the SS-21 and Frog-7, says the Arms Control Association. For every Patriot missile the U.S. delivers to Ukraine, it loses a missile it could use to defend itself against the threats any of these countries might pose during a direct conflict.
It’s supply and demand.
The U.S. controls the supply and it has plenty of potential internal demand to justify restricting how many Patriot missiles it sends elsewhere.
Ukraine understands this and has been trying to come up with solutions. It has urged its other Western partners, besides the U.S., to provide it with Patriot missiles and systems. But again, the stockpile issues rear their ugly heads. Many of Ukraine’s Western partners are hesitant to donate their Patriot missiles for the same reason as the U.S. – they need what they have to defend themselves in the case of a future attack.
Ukraine has also suggested that it could build Patriot missiles domestically if the U.S. grants it a license to do so. During the 25th Ramstein Summit in January, Zelenskyy claimed that talks were taking place that could lead to this becoming a reality.
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“And we’ve had talks with the U.S. about licensing air defense systems and missile production here in Ukraine. And this could become a significant part of our security guarantees, and it’s absolutely doable.”
However, nothing seems to have come of those talks yet. That’s not surprising. The Patriot missile is among America’s most advanced, so it would be wary of explaining exactly how it works to anybody. Plus, allowing Ukraine to build the missiles, even under license, creates the possibility that it may later start selling them to its allies.
The U.S. doesn’t want that.
It prefers to control the supply, which creates a demand problem when said supply is only 600 Patriot missiles per year to spread around several buyers.
Frank Ledwidge, who is a specialist in military capabilities and strategy at the U.K.’s University of Portsmouth, sums up the situation to The Kyiv Independent. “(The U.S.) clearly won't tell us how many (missiles) they have, nor should they, but I don't think they're in a good place,” Ledwidge told the outlet. “They would see (supplying weapons to Ukraine) as risking their own future, particularly in the western Pacific and, to a lesser extent, in the Middle East, which they view as a secondary theater.”
So, the licensing suggestion seems to have been rejected, and Ukraine isn’t having much luck convincing its Western allies to deliver more Patriot missiles given that they all want their Patriots just as badly.
Is there any possible solution to the supply problem?
There may be a couple.
In the U.S., Lockheed Martin has been slowly receiving more funding to build Patriot missiles. A Defense News report from 2024 reveals that the company was building 350 of the missiles annually back in 2018. That had risen to 500 per year in 2021, which is the year before Putin invaded Ukraine, and Lockheed Martin had enough funding to produce 550 of the missiles in 2024. It’s now building 600 per year, as The Guardian said, which suggests that the U.S. is slowly scaling up production.
Lockheed Martin has also built an 85,000-square-foot production facility that allows it to make more of its PAC-3 MSE missiles faster. By 2027, the company intends to be at a point where it's building 650 Patriot missiles per year.
That’s good progress, of course.
But as already established, even hitting 650 new missiles per year isn’t enough to maintain U.S. stockpiles, keep the Patriot’s European users supplied, and ensure that Ukraine has enough of the missiles to defend itself against Russia.
The German defense manufacturer Rheinmetall also seems to be stepping into the fray. On May 18, Militarnyi reported that the company is collaborating with Lockheed Martin to establish a large-scale production facility in Europe that will manufacture ATACMS and Patriot PAC-3 missiles. Negotiations are still underway, but the specific reason given for the move is that U.S. production isn’t keeping pace with demand. As Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger explained, “Sometimes it takes ten years to receive missiles from the United States, and that’s too long.”
However, that project isn’t guaranteed to go through.
Not only does Rheinmetall have to receive a license to build the facilities it's suggesting, which it may get thanks to its collaboration with Lockheed Martin, but it also needs time to get production up and running. Papperger says Rheinmetall could have a production line up and running in 12 to 13 months, but that doesn’t mean Patriot missiles will start flooding into Europe and Ukraine soon after. Assuming the facility is even built, Rheinmetall would spend 2026 building missile engines, and would only start making the missiles themselves in 2027. Full production wouldn’t even be possible until 2028 or 2029. And even if everything goes smoothly with this potential deal, Papperger suggests that the current missile needs are  between 250 and 300 PAC-3 missiles per year.
Add that to the 650 Lockheed Martin hopes to be making by 2027 and that’s between 900 and 950 per year.
It’s more supply, sure.
But it’s still not enough to supply everybody who wants Patriots unless something drastic, such as the end of the Ukraine war, happens.
Nevertheless, steps are being taken in the right direction.
As for Ukraine, it at least looks like it will be getting a little help to get its hands on more Patriots. On July 14, Australia’s ABC reported that Trump claims the U.S. will be sending more Patriot systems, including missiles, to Ukraine. The cost of those systems will be reimbursed by America’s NATO and European allies, the president says. That could mean that the U.S. supplies the missiles and systems directly in exchange for cash, or its partners send their systems to Ukraine, which the U.S. then replaces with new missiles and Patriot batteries at the donor’s cost.
However if it will work, this is good news for Ukraine. The country is going to get more Patriot missiles at a time when it sorely needs them, and these are separate from the 10 already allocated as part of the previously paused U.S. military aid package. But how many and when these missiles will arrive are questions that have yet to be answered.
One thing is clear:
Everybody wants Patriot missiles.
Now, America’s task is to increase production in any way that it can to ensure that want is met. It’s taking some steps domestically, as well as with potential licensing. But more needs to be done to both maintain its own stockpiles and ensure its partners aren’t waiting for up to a decade to get their hands on one of the world’s most desirable missiles.
Of course, Patriots aren’t the only tools for damaging Putin’s aerial assaults. Ukraine has more that can target the hordes of drones Russia sends every month, including Germany’s Skynex. Discover how this powerful air defense system is terminating drones out of the sky in our video and remember to subscribe to The Military Show for more videos covering what’s happening with the Patriot missile system.