American manufacturers’ resistance to licensing Ukraine to build Patriot interceptors is less about intellectual property than about competition, The Atlantic reported on August 8, citing a Republican official who supports granting Kyiv the license. Manufacturers fear Ukraine could improve the missile design and then mass-produce it faster and more cheaply than US factories currently can, according to the report.
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin will officially attribute their reluctance to “intellectual property theft and technology transfer” concerns, according to the congressional source cited in The Atlantic.
The tension follows a swerve in US policy. President Trump pledged at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8 to license Ukrainian production, and Raytheon and Lockheed Martin both opened co-production talks with Kyiv within the following three weeks. By late July, however, Trump told the Financial Times that he was “not sure” he would follow through, saying “we’re looking at it” and that Washington has “to be a little bit careful of who we license it to.” He separately said the US had “not agreed to” grant the license — a shift CNBC reported came amid concern over depleted US Patriot stockpiles as the Iran war continues to draw down interceptor supplies.
Neither company has publicly confirmed the cost-competition rationale described to The Atlantic. Washington has not confirmed a final decision on the licensing agreement.
