US signs deal to boost Patriot and THAAD missile parts production

The US$3 billion deal with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman comes as conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine strain US stockpiles

The US has signed a more than US$3 billion deal with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to ramp up production of Patriot and THAAD interceptor missile parts, as conflicts in Iran and Ukraine strain stockpiles.

The deal, announced by the Pentagon and Northrop on Monday, follows last week’s announcement of a contract for Lockheed worth up to US$58.6 billion to produce Patriot interceptor missiles.

The United States has supplied large amounts of arms to allies while also using munitions in the Iran conflict, raising concerns about inventories of air defence and precision-guided weapons.

The Pentagon said in its statement on Monday that the framework deal would allow production of Patriots to triple and THAAD systems to quadruple.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, estimated recently that the US military has fewer than 1,000 Patriot interceptors on hand and fewer than 250 THAAD interceptors — two key air defence systems.

Both have been heavily used in the Middle East. Pentagon negotiators have pressed contractors to move faster with tentative production agreements struck earlier this year to increase missile output.