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Lockheed Martin said it would field a new and cheaper model of Patriot missile that could hit the battlefield faster, as global stockpiles of high-end interceptors dwindle.
The company said Monday that its planned PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector can be made more quickly and will cost buyers less than half as much as Lockheed’s bestselling Missile Segment Enhancement version. Recent Army budget documents show MSE interceptors cost more than $4 million a round.
Lockheed said its scaled-down Patriot design can thwart an array of attacks, from cruise missiles to “close-range and short-range ballistic missiles.” It isn’t intended to replace high-end Patriots capable of hitting the longer-range ballistic weapons that Russia has hurled at Ukraine to devastating effect.
Lockheed and RTX, which makes the Patriot launcher system, have pledged to meet White House demands to triple or quadruple their output of some high-tech missiles over the coming years. But military officials have also said they need more low-cost and midrange defenses in their arsenal that can be delivered in months, rather than years.
“PAC-3 was not originally designed from a manufacturability perspective,” Army procurement official Brent Ingraham said at a recent industry event. He pointed to its “hand-fabricated, hand-assembled pieces” rather than the more advanced machinery seen in automotive manufacturing.
Lockheed Martin said it would ask European defense companies to help supply parts for the planned interceptors, like rocket motors and seekers. “Our intentions are to come produce in Europe,” Lockheed Martin missiles chief Tim Cahill said during a press conference Monday at the U.K.’s Farnborough International Airshow.
A Boeing factory near Huntsville, Ala., is the only current source of the PAC-3 seeker, a device nestled in the missile’s nose that helps steer it toward its target. The aerospace giant had been increasing production of the complex device to meet steep Pentagon targets before the U.S. war with Iran pushed global demand for the missiles even higher.
It is unclear how quickly Lockheed Martin and its suppliers would be able to develop the new interceptor. The defense contractor aims to start flight testing the missile in 2028, a spokeswoman said.
President Trump earlier this month said he would consider giving Ukraine a license to build its own Patriot interceptors. Lockheed Martin described its European missile plan as a separate proposal from the talks over a potential Ukrainian production license.
In the U.S., Army officials this year launched a competition to develop a lower-cost interceptor that could be produced for less than $1 million a round. The effort calls for a blank slate by accepting new designs for seekers, rocket motors and other major components assembled into a missile that could still be fired from existing Patriot launchers.
Cahill said it was too soon to tell whether its ACE missile design can meet the low-cost interceptor project’s requirements, though it checks some of the boxes on the Army’s wish list. The new design, he said, would supplement rather than replace high-end MSEs, giving armies a way to “thin the herd” of drones and cruise missiles typically used in modern warfare.
Write to Drew FitzGerald at [email protected]
