US, Japan agree to ramp up missile production for Patriot

Today, the main consumer of these missiles is Ukraine.

The US and Japan have agreed to increase production volumes of MIM-104 missiles for the Patriot air defense missile system, the US Department of Defense reported .

As follows from the text of the official agreement between the two countries, the world demand for anti-aircraft missiles for the Patriot SAM system is constantly growing. To meet this need, Japan and the United States will try to implement a plan to increase production.

First of all, it is planned to increase the production of MIM-104F MSE missiles, which are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles. The production of AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for fighters will also be increased.

Patriot Missile Shortage Around the World

As UNIAN wrote, at the end of last year, Western media reported that the US was running out of anti-aircraft missiles for the Patriot systems. Because of this, the Pentagon even wanted to start importing them from Japan, which produces them under license.

According to analysts, these missiles are actually produced relatively little . Lockheed Martin previously stated that it produces 450 of these missiles per year and plans to increase their production to 550 units by 2026. Considering the number of Patriot PAC 3 operators (about 15 countries), this is not a very significant figure. Especially considering that Ukraine needs them in significant quantities.

(C)UNIAN 2024