US approves sale of 5,250 Patriot missiles to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE amid supply shortage

Amid the growing tensions in West Asia, reports are emerging that the United States has approved the sale of 5,250 Patriot missile ⁠interceptors to Bahrain, ​Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates with the aim of building the countries’ stockpiles. The move is coming at a time when supplies of the weapon system are seeing depletion worldwide.

Apart from this, the US is also pressing ahead with talks on allowing Ukraine to make Patriot interceptor missiles, even after President Donald Trump said that he has not approved such a deal as of now, sources close to the matter told Reuters. The talks in question include an option for Ukraine to build some components for final assembly elsewhere in Europe.

Last month, the US Army awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth up to $58.6 billion to produce Patriot interceptor missiles. It is pertient to note that the US Patriot air defence system, which was first used in the 1991 Gulf War, has seen a spike n demand this year.

The growing demand worldwide

Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Kyiv is urgently seeking more Patriot interceptors to defend against a nightly barrage of Russian ballistic missile strikes. ​Meanwhile, the war in Iran has drained arsenals in the US and the Gulf, and some European countries are holding onto missiles they may need for their ‌own defence.

The system is popular worldwide because it has different capabilities depending on the type of interceptor used. The earlier PAC-2 interceptor uses a blast-fragmentation warhead that detonates in the vicinity of a target, while the ​PAC-3 family of missiles uses more accurate “hit-to-kill” technology to physically collide with the target.

In July this year, Lockheed introduced a new interceptor, the PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector (ACE), which it says will cost half as much while still being able to target short-range ballistic missiles, aircraft and cruise missiles. The system’s radar has a range of over 150 km (93 miles) and can ​simultaneously track up to 100 potential targets, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) said in 2015.

A newly produced single Patriot battery costs over $1 ​billion, including $400 million for the system and $690 ⁠million for the missiles in a battery, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Meanwhile, Patriot PAC-3 interceptors are estimated at around $4 million to $5 million per missile.

With inputs from Reuters.