Tag: MissileDefense
U.S. Locks In Massive Patriot Production Expansion
The U.S. government has awarded Lockheed Martin a seven-year contract modification worth up to $53.86 billion for Patriot PAC-3 MSE interceptors, bringing the total multiyear program to $58.62 billion after an initial $4.7 billion award in April.The money buys time, not missiles. Lockheed delivered 620 PAC-3 MSE interceptors in 2025…
Private Industry Storms the Missile Age
The missile is again becoming an organizing weapon of conventional war. Ukraine and the Middle East have shown that states with modest air forces can impose military and economic costs at long range. Precision strike has turned into an industrial competition built around mixed salvos, production speed and the ability…
U.S. Missile Shortages Raise Risks From Ukraine to Taiwan
U.S. officials fear Russia and China may factor depleted American missile-interceptor stocks into decisions on Ukraine, Europe and Taiwan, after the Iran war consumed a share of critical air-defense munitions, The New York Times reported Sunday. That is an assessment of strategic risk, not evidence either leader has decided on…
U.S. Starts Rationing Air Defenses Against Iranian Strikes
U.S. commanders are deliberately allowing some Iranian missiles and attack drones through their air defenses, accepting damage to military installations rather than expend interceptors that are growing harder to replace, according to NBC News.Two senior U.S. officials told NBC News that commanders have been choosing which incoming weapons to intercept…
Lockheed Unveils Lower-Cost Patriot Interceptor
Lockheed Martin unveiled the PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector (ACE) at the Farnborough International Airshow on Monday, introducing a lower-cost interceptor for the Patriot air-defense system that the company says will cost less than half as much as the current PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE), estimated at about $4 million per…
Russia’s Long-Range Strike Campaign Is Becoming a War of Industrial Attrition
More than four years into Russia's full-scale invasion, the struggle for control of Ukraine's skies has become one of the defining contests of the war. Moscow is no longer seeking decisive effects from individual missile barrages. Instead, it is using sustained waves of drones and missiles to wear down Ukraine's…
