America Approves 500 Patriots That May Take Years to Arrive
The State Department has cleared the sale of 500 PAC-3 interceptor missiles to Ukraine at a cost of $2.1bn, the one weapon that reliably downs Russian ballistic missiles. President Zelensky welcomed the decision and then warned that deliveries may begin, in his words, “only in a few years”. The statement gave no delivery date.
The gap between an approval and a delivery is the whole story here. This is a proposed foreign military sale of weapons that have not been built: the department says no American funds are involved, the cost being met by Canada, Germany and Norway through an allied programme and by national funds drawn on a European loan to Ukraine. Two people briefed on the decision told news agencies the missiles are not expected to arrive until a couple of years into the 2030s. Mr Zelensky’s counter-proposal is specific and is the part worth watching: that America and European allies hold enough Patriot interceptors in stock to hand over now, and replenish them later through contracts Ukraine and its partners have already paid for — which he called “the right approach” and “entirely feasible”. He says Ukraine waited almost a month for sign-off while running critically low. The urgency is not abstract: a Russian drone strike on a crowded rail platform in Dnipro killed at least fourteen people on Thursday, and a missile killed one in Kyiv that evening.