Ukrainian Authorities Panic as Patriots Run Out Amidst Russian Ballistic Frenzy
Russia has again struck Kiev with a large ballistic missile-focused attack. Even the Ukrainians had to admit not a single one was shot down because Patriot missile stocks have run dry:
Major weapons production facilities were said to be hit, and some claim even stored Pac-3 interceptors for the Patriot system were amongst the targets, though this is unverified. The secondary explosions certainly pointed to some sort of munitions being struck:
As stated, even Kiev Independent reports that Ukraine’s Patriot interceptors have been effectively exhausted:
This has materialized in extreme urgency amongst top Ukrainian military experts. Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov went on back to back rants regarding Ukraine’s desperate search for more Patriot missiles from European partners.
Here he explains that there is a global shortage due to both Iran and the Ukraine war, as well as the fact that European ‘allies’ are stockpiling the precious missiles themselves due to the rising “threat” of some kind of Russian invasion against European states which the Brussels elites have beat into everyone’s heads:
A recent update from Kiev Post reported that Lockheed Martin announced its inability to guarantee favorable timelines for the production of these necessary missiles:
US missile manufacturer Lockheed Martin has warned that it cannot guarantee delivery timelines for key Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles despite plans to sharply increase production. According to the FT, the company is expanding output to 2,000 missiles annually by 2033, but supply constraints and prioritization decisions remain unresolved. The shortage is already affecting US allies and Ukraine, which rely heavily on Patriot systems to counter ballistic missile threats.
The report notes that Lockheed intends to raise annual Pac-3 production from ~650 to 2,000 missiles by 2033. Consider how tiny that is: 650 per year is a measly 54 per month—that’s for the entire world. Ukraine alone needs far more than that per month, particularly when you take into account that, doctrinally, multiple interceptors have to be fired at each threat, particularly a ballistic threat. Minimum two are necessary, and sometimes as many as four or even six Patriots per Iskander.
Even when production increases to an “ideal” 2,000 per year by 2033, this still amounts to merely ~166 per month for the entire world, including the US itself. And the article implies that this ideal may never be realized because many problems still remain unresolved.
A separate WSJ report last month tackled what the issues are, precisely:
This particular piece states that the 2,000 per year target isn’t expected to be reached until the end of the 2030s. The challenges are many:
Lockheed is facing a litany of challenges to hit its target, from component bottlenecks to tight markets for local labor. A Lockheed spokeswoman said the company is working with the government and its suppliers to “eliminate bottlenecks and shorten lead times wherever possible, while still maintaining the rigorous performance and safety standards required.”
Shockingly, the article states that each single Pac-3MSE missile takes over two years to build.
Granted, there are many being built at the same time, but the total lead time for the manufacture of all the different parts, and then final assembly—which itself takes six weeks—apparently totals over the two year mark. The main reason is that there are over 400 different companies supplying parts to this single missile type, which all manufacture their various components at different rates and scales. The components themselves then all have to be individually tested before final delivery. This entire complex process explains why expanding the supply chains all at once is nearly impossible, and why the ambitious goal of 2,000 per year will likely never be even remotely approached.
But getting back to the Kiev strikes. A Ukrainian officer’s channel angrily laments that a quite sensitive “secret” facility was amongst those hit:
