Ukraine will get Patriot missile production license, but only for older version - Trump
US President Donald Trump (photo: Getty Images)
Ukraine will receive a license to produce missiles for the Patriot system, but only for a less advanced version, Trump said.
Journalists asked the US president whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be able to secure a license to produce missiles for the Patriot system. Trump gave a brief answer.
"Far less sophisticated," Trump replied.
The US president did not specify when a final decision on transferring the license could be made.
On September 2, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington was holding talks with Kyiv on granting licenses to produce missiles for Patriot systems.
In August, former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg explained why Washington was delaying the transfer of a Patriot production license.
According to him, defense companies themselves, including Lockheed Martin, oppose the move because they fear losing control over their technologies.
In early September, the US president shared an article by an American media outlet that outlined a possible solution to the issue.
The authors proposed allowing Ukraine to produce a less advanced version of the interceptors. Two types of missiles were mentioned as possible options.
The first option is the PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector, a cheaper interceptor produced by Lockheed Martin.
The second option is the PAC-2 GEM-T, an older missile produced by Raytheon that has already been approved for production for Ukraine at a factory in Germany.
