US State Department clears $5B sale of Patriot missiles to Germany

The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of the latest variant of Patriot missiles to Germany in a deal that could be worth an estimated $5 billion, according to a Thursday Defense Security Cooperation Agency notification.

The possible Foreign Military Sale to Germany would involve 600 of the Lockheed Martin-manufactured Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles, which includes 10 fly-to-buy missiles, according to the announcement.

The State Department notified Congress on Aug. 15, which decides whether to approve the deal.

Germany has invested heavily in its Patriot air and missile defense capabilities this year as it sends both Patriot batteries and interceptors to Ukraine to support the country’s years-long fight against Russia’s invasion.

In March, Germany ordered $1.2 billion worth of Raytheon-manufactured Patriot systems, and another $1.2 billion for system components in July. Combining both contracts, Raytheon, an RTX company, will deliver eight complete Patriot fire units.

Raytheon also received earlier this month, a $478 million contract from NATO to replenish the Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile, or GEM-T, that Germany had sent to Ukraine. The contract stems from a partnership between Ukraine, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany – countries who have agreed to finance the procurement of GEM-T missiles to replenish stockpiles. The multinational coalition jointly agreed to order up to 1,000 GEM-T missiles as part of a $5.5 billion production and delivery contract of the weapons from a joint venture between MBDA Germany and Raytheon.

Patriot’s dominance in Ukraine has attracted fresh attention and potential customers from around the world. Germany is a longtime user of Patriot. Patriot serves as the air defense for 19 countries, with 15 of those countries using PAC-3 MSE in its missile inventory.

Lockheed Martin was already fully funded to build 550 missiles per year in order to replenish the PAC-3 MSE missiles sent to Ukraine. The company had been building 350 missiles per year by 2018 and was already ramping that number up to 500 per year before war broke out in Ukraine.

The company is also invested internally to ramp up 650 PAC-3 MSE missiles annually by 2027 at its Camden, Arkansas, production facility.