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RTX
Winter is coming, and so is the missile shortage
Ukraine says its Patriot interceptor stocks are running on fumes just as Russia keeps hammering energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy told Axios he asked President Trump for an emergency batch of 300 interceptors to get through winter — because apparently geopolitics now comes with a very literal supply chain problem.
The defense giants get pulled in
After the White House visit, Zelenskyy said he met with representatives from Lockheed Martin and RTX to talk through Patriot interceptor production. That’s the part investors should care about: if Washington leans into more production licenses and volume, these companies could see even more demand for the Patriot ecosystem.
- Ukraine wants missiles now, not in three years.
- Trump reportedly said the U.S. would help secure more Patriot systems, but supplies are tight because of the war with Iran.
- Zelenskyy said Ukraine and U.S. defense companies are also exploring ways to turn Ukrainian-made ballistic missiles into anti-missile interceptors.
The catch? Time, lots of it
Even if the licensing piece moves forward, Zelenskyy said scaling production could take one to five years. That’s a painfully long lead time when the immediate ask is for survival this winter. So while this isn’t a clean earnings headline or a neat contract announcement, it does keep the Patriot program and its suppliers squarely on the radar.
Big picture: when a war turns into a production bottleneck, the winners are often the companies that can make the stuff fast enough — and that’s exactly what investors will be watching here.