Races to secure air defense

Ukraine races to secure air defense as global demand surges

Limited stockpiles and slow industrial ramp-up leave Ukraine leaning on U.S.-backed systems despite push for European solutions.

By Chris Lunday and Veronika Melkozerova

Ukraine urgently needs more air defenses but fears surging global demand for interceptors — driven by the Iran war and European rearmament — will leave it short.

"There is not enough production capacity in Europe," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Berlin on Thursday.

That's forcing Kyiv to continue relying on the American-made Patriot air defense system, as well as pushing for more French-German SAMP/Ts. Kyiv is even developing its own anti-missile defenses to make it less reliant on outsiders.

"We must ensure that we have the capabilities to enable Europeans to produce here in Europe everything that is critically necessary for Europe’s defense," Zelenskyy said, adding: "This applies, in particular, to Europe’s ability to produce anti-ballistic air defense systems in the necessary quantities."

During Zelenskyy's visit to Berlin, his Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov signed a €4 billion defense cooperation deal with Germany that includes a contract with the Patriot producer Raytheon for several hundred PAC-2 missiles fired by Patriot systems, which will be built in Germany.

PAC-2s explode near their target to destroy it, while PAC-3 missiles hit the incoming missile directly, making them more precise and better suited for stopping ballistic threats.

Production will be set up to deliver those missiles in 2027, a Raytheon representative told Hartpunkt. The deal also includes 36 IRIS-T medium and short-range launchers made by Germany's Diehl Defense.

"Today we again agreed on new aid packages, primarily in air defense," said Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Air defenses are also likely to come up during Wednesday's meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) that organizes military aid for Kyiv.

Ukraine has made enormous strides in intercepting daily waves of Russian drones and regularly knocks down over 90 percent of them. But it has a much more difficult time with ballistic missiles, rockets that ascend to the edge of Earth's atmosphere before a high-speed reentry toward a target. The missiles' speed and trajectory makes them difficult to intercept, which require hard-to-get systems like the Patriot or the SAMP/T.

But it's not just Ukraine that is pushing for more missile defense systems.

The United States and its allies fired 1,802 Patriot interceptors in the first 16 days of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, according to the U.S.-based Payne Institute — more than twice as many as Ukraine has used over the four years of the war against Russia.

This month, the Pentagon signed a $4.7 billion deal with Lockheed Martin to boost production of PAC-3s from about 600 a year to 2,000.

European countries are also rearming and building up their own defense systems while continuing to supply Ukraine.

During Wednesday's meeting of the UDCG — also known as the Ramstein group — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey will join German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Fedorov.

A central part of the allied effort is the NATO-led Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List program, where countries buy U.S. weapons — including Patriots — for Ukraine. It's a response to new U.S. military aid for Kyiv ending under Donald Trump.

“As long as we see this deficit, we need the PURL program,” Zelenskyy said in Berlin, adding that the program can bridge production gaps in Europe.

Russia has intensified its long-range strikes against Ukraine this year, firing 270 ballistic and hypersonic missiles, the Ukrainian Defense ministry said. 

While European governments have increased support, including deliveries of systems such as SAMP/T, production remains limited and slow to scale. That has left Kyiv heavily dependent on Patriots.

Merz said Germany and Ukraine had agreed on “further comprehensive support,” including in air defense, long-range weapons, drones and artillery ammunition. 

Ukraine is also trying to develop its own air defense system.

Last week, Ukrainian missile producer Fire Point told Reuters it is working on an anti-ballistic air defense system, with the aim of it going into action by next year. The company's co-founder Denys Shtilerman said the goal is to drive the cost of an interceptor missile to below $1 million, about a quarter of the cost of a PAC-3.

The effort is still in early stages. Shtilerman said the company is seeking cooperation with European partners on radar, targeting and communications — key areas where it lacks expertise.

Zelenskyy has made clear that building a domestic system is a strategic priority. “The unconditional task is our own air defense, which will be able to fight against ballistics,” he said earlier this week.

For now, however, Ukraine remains reliant on Western supply, Zelenskyy said.