Ukraine’s Patriot missile batteries are facing a critical shortage of interceptors as global demand for the US-made air defence weapon far outstrips production. CNN, which was granted access to a Patriot system inside Ukraine, reported that its launch tubes were empty, leaving crews unable to engage ballistic missiles despite having the sophisticated air-defence equipment in place.

The shortage has become a wider problem for countries relying on the Patriot system after heavy use during the war with Iran. Coalition forces used an average of 225 interceptors a day during the first four days of the conflict, according to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, while manufacturer Lockheed Martin produced 620 interceptors during all of 2025.

The Ukrainian Patriot system inspected by CNN had 16 launch tubes showing signs of regular use, but its chief engineer, identified only as Dmytro for security reasons, said he had not seen the launcher fire for six weeks. Ukraine has been reluctant to disclose exactly how many interceptors remain available, although President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv currently has access to only around 1% of the US stockpile.

“This is a really heartbreaking sight when you have equipment but you’re not able to intercept any missile,” Dmytro told CNN. He described the situation as particularly difficult because Russian ballistic missiles continue to threaten Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure.

Dmytro said the first time he found himself without interceptors to fire was in December 2025. The Patriot crew’s task involves detecting and assessing incoming threats before commanders decide whether an interceptor should be launched, making the shortage a direct constraint on the system’s ability to defend populated areas.

The problem extends well beyond Ukraine. Patriot is one of the few widely deployed systems capable of engaging ballistic missile threats, making its interceptors particularly valuable as conflicts in Europe and the Middle East generate sustained demand.

The scale of the imbalance is stark. The Foreign Policy Research Institute estimates coalition forces used an average of 225 Patriot interceptors per day during the first four days of the Iran war, while Lockheed Martin produced only 620 interceptors throughout 2025 — roughly 1.7 a day.

That creates a substantial mismatch between wartime consumption and industrial output. The Pentagon entered a seven-year agreement with Lockheed Martin in January aimed at increasing production to 2,000 interceptors annually by 2030, but that expansion does not immediately solve the current shortage.

Ukrainian crews had anticipated that heavy Patriot use in the Gulf could eventually affect their own supplies. Dmytro told CNN that Ukrainian personnel had expected the Middle East conflict to create difficulties, particularly after seeing the volume of missiles and interceptors being used there.

Zelensky has meanwhile pushed for Ukraine to eventually manufacture Patriot interceptors under US licence. He said he had offered Raytheon and Lockheed Martin ownership and control of a potential production facility in Ukraine, with Ukrainian engineers providing the workforce and technical expertise.

At the NATO summit in Ankara in June, President Donald Trump reportedly offered Ukraine licences to begin manufacturing the interceptors. However, a White House official later said no decision had been made and no guarantee had been given, stressing that protecting US technology remained a priority.

For Ukraine, the immediate problem remains more basic. Even with the Patriot batteries already deployed, an empty launcher cannot stop a Russian ballistic missile. As Dmytro told CNN when asked whether Ukraine could immediately build its own Patriot battery and interceptor, “No. Definitely not,” pointing to the complexity and technical knowledge required to reproduce the system.