Pentagon commits to tripling Patriot missile production at $4 million per

By Morgan Sweeney
The Center Square

Boeing is partnering with the Department of War to triple its production of seekers for Patriot missiles, according to a joint announcement Wednesday.

The U.S. has been working toward building up its supply of Patriot missiles for years, but the Trump administration announced earlier this year the specific goal of more than tripling the department’s annual production from roughly 600 missiles per year to 2,000. Each missile costs at least $4 million to build, according to a 2025 briefing from the Congressional Research Service.

Lockheed Martin will build the missiles themselves, while Boeing will make the seekers that enable the missiles to identify and track their targets. Both companies started accelerating production in 2024.

Patriot defense systems are “the U.S. Army’s most advanced air defense system” and an “integral component” of both U.S. air and missile defense, capable of intercepting both aircraft and missiles. But there have been reports of waning stockpiles.

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to quash rumors of diminishing munitions just days into Operation Epic Fury, saying that U.S. “medium and upper medium grade” munitions stockpiles have “never been higher or better.”

“We have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies,” Trump wrote.

However, he did note that he would like to see the supply of high-grade weaponry enhanced.

“At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be,” he said, which he claimed was in part due to former President Joe Biden being too generous with it and not “[bothering] to replace it.”

Patriot missiles are among the most advanced, sophisticated weapons systems in modern day warfare.

A few days later, Trump again posted to social media describing a meeting with major U.S. defense manufacturing companies saying they had agreed to quadrupling their production of “‘exquisite class’ weaponry.”

As part of its announcement, the government touted its new Acquisition Transformation Strategy, which it has used to create seven-year frameworks for its agreements with Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

“We will award companies bigger, longer contracts for proven systems so those companies will be confident in investing more to grow the industrial base that supplies our weapons systems more and faster,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a November speech.

Even though the strategy prioritizes “engaging directly with key suppliers at all levels of the industrial base,” the department says it still reduces “upfront government facilitization and capacity investments.”