Ukraine seeks Partnership with Mitsubishi to Manufacture Patriot Interceptor Missiles

After U.S. President Trump hinted at giving Kyiv a licence to manufacture the Patriot PAC-3 missiles, President Zelensky is looking towards Japan’s Mitsubishi to help set up a production facility in Ukraine.

Mitsubishi is the only company outside of the U.S. licensed to manufacture the Patriot PAC-3 missiles.

The Patriot PAC-3 missiles have helped Ukraine immensely to intercept Russian ballistic missiles that have been devastating its military facilities for over 4 years now.

“We know what Mitsubishi does. It has demonstrated a very high standard in producing missiles for the Patriot system. It is probably the strongest example today of how, after obtaining a U.S. license, a company can establish its own anti-ballistic missile production,” he said during a media exchange in Kyiv last Thursday.

Zelensky has offered data on use of Patriot PAC-3 interceptors in Ukraine which will help to further refine the weapon in tracking and intercepting the Russian missiles, in exchange to Western companies that provide it with missiles.

 Trump told Zelenskyy on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara last week that he will grant Ukraine a Patriot manufacturing license so that it can rapidly produce the weapons in a cost effective manner rather than rely on the slow pace and expensive production in American plants.

“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool. This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving ’em enough,” Trump said at a meeting with Zelenskyy

Japan has in the past supplied PAC-3 missiles to the U.S. to make up the shortage caused by Washington sending the missiles from its own stocks to Ukraine.

Among international companies, besides Mitsubishi, only MBDA Deutschland has a licence to make Patriot interceptors. However this is for the GEM-T missiles which are optimized for air breathing engines such as aircraft, drones and cruise missiles.