Supplying Ukraine anti-ballistic missiles for Patriot from existing production lines and from stockpiles are only real options for strengthening Armed Forces. U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO Matthew Whitaker directly stated this, adding that transferring surface-to-air missile production license is long-term program currently only at negotiation stage.
Defense Express also recalls Freyja project is also not answer to question of how to survive this winter, as Fire Point directly stated first ballistic target interception test is planned to be conducted approximately by July 2027. At same time, how much time will be needed for their completion, production establishment and troop saturation is currently not announced.
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This is precisely why at Bankova, searching for available missiles in foreign country arsenals was repeatedly named one of main priorities for Ukrainian diplomacy. At same time, Defense Express notes there are objective difficulties precisely with finding PAC-3 anti-ballistic missiles for Patriot.
Overall current operators of this system in PAC-3 version are 14 countries. In Europe these are Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania and Ukraine itself. Two more countries are in waiting stage: Spain only in late 2025 ordered four Patriot PAC-3 SAM systems worth $1.7 billion. And Switzerland ordered five such systems back in 2021, but still awaits them and did not dare cease advance payments.
At same time, European countries indeed already quite actively helped Ukraine with Patriot missiles, starting back in 2023. And as of 2026, political scandal that arose in Poland after transferring only five missiles quite demonstrates how complex mission for diplomatic staff in EU countries can be.
Another region with significant Patriot operator quantity is Persian Gulf countries. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia. But if still at year start this region could indeed be considered treasure chest with significant surface-to-air missile stocks, U.S. war against iran changed everything.
How many surface-to-air missiles these countries fired is unknown, as are possible stock remnants. But for understanding, by second week of active combat operations, Arab countries announced shooting down over 800 launched iranian ballistic missiles, which would require minimum 1,600 PAC-3 units. This at standard expenditure of two per target. But it was far from always followed — numerous videos exist when up to 4-5 interceptors were fired to shoot down one target.
Next region is Asia. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are Patriot SAM system operators. At same time, unlike Europe and Middle East, they never used them except during exercises.
But all three countries do not provide weapons assistance to Ukraine. Korea holds unshakeable position by which it is not ready to even help, let alone sell its weapons. Taiwan is currently definitely not in situation to begin disarming before China threat. Therefore only Japan remains, which already effectively helped Ukraine with these missiles, but through complex bypass scheme.
In 2025, Tokyo began supplying U.S. Patriot missiles, which were to go toward compensating Pentagon transfer of surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine, but prohibited transferring them to Ukraine directly. At same time, Japanese cannot do this directly due to legislation restrictions. Additionally, reducing surface-to-air missile quantity in Japan may not correspond to interests of U.S. itself, which considers specifically China main threat.
Ultimately even American stocks decreased so much due to iran war that they can hardly be considered as supply source. By CSIS calculations, before Operation Epic Fury start, U.S. had over 2,300 PAC-3 missiles, and now approximately 800 — this is 13 missiles per one SAM system.
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