Pentagon signs contract with Lockheed Martin for around €51.8 billion for Patriot missiles

The U.S. Department of Defense has signed a contract with Lockheed Martin worth around €51.8 billion for the production of PAC-3 interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems.

The agreement is designed for seven years and provides for nearly a threefold increase in interceptor output by 2030, Bloomberg reports.

The new contract is an expansion of an agreement signed in April. At that time, Lockheed Martin received a contract worth around €4.1 billion, to which a modification worth around €47.3 billion has now been added, covering the entire seven-year period. According to the plans, production of PAC-3 MSE missiles will be increased from approximately 600 to around 2,000 units per year by 2030. The cost of one such missile is around €3.5 million.

To fulfill the order, Lockheed Martin will hire an additional 650 employees. After that, the number of personnel engaged in Patriot missile production at the company’s facility in Camden, Arkansas, will grow to 1,850 people.

According to Bloomberg, the contract is part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s program to ramp up defense production and replenish stocks of missiles and interceptors that were depleted during the war with Iran.

The program to increase Patriot missile production began back in 2024. At that time, the U.S. Army signed a contract with Lockheed Martin worth around €4 billion for the production of 870 PAC-3 MSE interceptor missiles. The U.S. military department stated that the agreement would allow for the expansion of production capacity for missiles intended not only for U.S. armed forces but also for Ukraine and other allies.

Subsequently, Lockheed Martin warned that due to sharply increased demand it could not guarantee allies delivery timelines for the interceptors. In July of this year, the company announced the development of a cheaper PAC-3 ACE missile, which is intended to complement the lineup of weapons for Patriot systems.