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US-Japan Patriot missile production delayed by component shortage, Reuters reports

by The Kyiv Independent news desk July 20, 2024 11:30 PM 2 min read
Two Patriot air defense systems in Zamosc, Poland, on July 3, 2023. (Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images)
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U.S. plans to produce more Patriot air defense missiles — critical for Ukraine's defense against Russia — at Japanese factories is delayed by shortages of a crucial component made by Boeing, four unnamed sources told Reuters.

The U.S. is looking to increase production of the missiles from 500 annually to more than 750 globally as fast as possible, one source told Reuters.

No expansion in Japan will be possible at all without additional missile seekers, the part that guides them in the final stages of the flight, sources said.

Under a contract from the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, the Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) currently produces around 30 PAC-3 missiles annually. MHI could up that figure to around 60, Japanese government officials and industry sources said.

But "it could take several years before MHI is able to raise output" as a result of the shortage, an industry source said.

"The production snag in Japan shows the challenges Washington faces in plugging industrial help from its global allies into its complex supply chains," Reuters wrote.

Ukraine has struggled to obtain the adequate number of Patriot missiles systems it needs to protect itself from Russia as the number of the systems in existence is limited and some partners are hesitant to give theirs up to Ukraine.

F-16s, multi-billion pledge, more Patriots, ‘irreversible’ membership – what Ukraine will and won’t get at the NATO Summit
While 75th birthdays are usually a cause for joy and celebration, NATO’s marking of this milestone at a three-day summit in Washington from 9-11 July is likely to be a rather more muted affair. Ukraine is understandably top of the agenda, with a Russian mass missile attack on July 8

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