Poland offers to host facility producing Patriot missiles for Ukraine

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland has proposed that, if the United States grants Ukraine permission to produce its own missiles for Patriot air-defence systems, the factory could be located on Polish territory to ensure its security.

The news was revealed by deputy defence minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka, who also confirmed that Poland would seek to establish a Patriot servicing and production facility even if it does not host Ukraine’s.

Patriot missile systems have been a key part of Ukraine’s defence against Russian aerial attacks. However, Kyiv has suffered from a shortage of missiles used in the system, prompting President Volodymyr Zelensky to appeal to allies to transfer their interceptors as well as to allow Ukraine to produce them itself.

US President Donald Trump initially told Zelensky at a meeting in July that “we are gonna give you a licence to make Patriots”. However, he then backtracked on that offer later the same month.

But, following weeks of uncertainty, on Friday last week Zelensky claimed that Trump had personally told him he had made a “final decision” to approve a licence for Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles. Washington has not confirmed that development.

Asked about the issue on Saturday, Sobkowiak-Czarnecka told broadcaster TVN, “let’s see if it happens”. However, she added that, “we proposed that, if such a factory is planned to be built in Ukraine, we propose building it in Poland, so that it would be in the so-called safe territory”.

Poland is already the primary hub for military equipment, goods and people being transported in and out of its eastern neighbour.

Sobkowiak-Czarnecka added that, regardless of where the plant serving Ukraine is located, Poland would also still seek to establish a facility for servicing and, eventually, production of Patriots.

“What my interlocutors in Washington confirmed is that, even if such a decision is made regarding Ukraine, it does not change our efforts and does not rule out consent for Poland,” she said. Sobkowiak-Czarnecka was in Washington last week for talks with US officials.

In May this year, another deputy defence minister, Cezary Tomczyk, told TVN that Poland had “received preliminary approval from the US State Department to produce missiles for Patriot systems”.

In 2018, as part of its Wisła air defence programme, Poland signed a $4.75bn contract to purchase Patriot launchers and missiles from the US.

In October 2023, the first Patriot systems procured from the US were deployed at Warsaw Babice airport. In December 2025, Poland announced full operational readiness of its US-supplied Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS), an air-defence network that includes Patriot missile batteries.

Poland also has an agreement to domestically produce launchers for Patriot systems through cooperation between Polish state-owned defence contractor Huta Stalowa Wola SA and US defence giant Raytheon.

The issue of Ukraine’s need for more Patriot missiles caused domestic political controversy in Poland earlier this year, when the right-wing opposition reacted angrily to reports that the government had handed over some interceptors to Ukraine.

In July, the government confirmed that it had done so. However, Prime Minister Donald Tusk later revealed that only five missiles had been transferred to Ukraine.

In late July, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that the Iran war had depleted America’s stockpile of Patriot missiles to 800 interceptors from roughly 2,300 before the war began.

Last week, Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, confirmed that his country has also proposed that it could manufacture interceptors and perhaps even entire Patriot systems.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Leo Greenberg

Leo Greenberg is assistant editor at Notes from Poland.