The U.S. will prioritize sending air defense interceptors to Ukraine that were intended for delivery to other countries under foreign military sales cases, the White House confirmed on Thursday.
John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters the reprioritization for Ukraine covers missiles for Patriot and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS).
“The United States government has made the difficult but necessary decision to reprioritize near-term planned deliveries of foreign military sales to other countries of particularly Patriot and NASAMS missiles to go to Ukraine instead,” Kirby said during a briefing with reporters. “We’re going to reprioritize the deliveries of these exports so that those missiles rolling off the production line will now be provided to Ukraine.”
Kirby said the decision arrives as Ukraine “urgently needs” additional air defense capabilities as it has faced an “accelerated” number of Russian missile and drone attacks on infrastructure in recent months.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has repeatedly cited air defense capabilities as a top priority for security assistance efforts to Ukraine, with Thursday’s decision set to cover Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built Patriot interceptors and RTX’s Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles for NASAMS.
“We’re working very closely with industry on the appropriate contracting actions from this resequencing to ensure that we’re able to continue to support our security assistance requirements,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said during a briefing on Thursday. “I’m not going to be able to go into any specifics beyond that in terms of what those contracting actions are or [which] companies those are but, needless to say, we are going to make sure that not only are we supporting Ukraine but that we’re continuing to keep on track with those FMS deliveries as quickly as possible.”
Kirby on Thursday declined to specify the impacted nations awaiting deliveries of these air defense interceptors under existing FMS cases, only noting its a “range of countries” and that the decision would not impact assistance to Taiwan.
“To be clear, those countries will still receive the missiles that they have ordered. It’s just that the delivery timelines will now take a little longer,” Kirby said. “And we’re making any effort to minimize any negative impact to countries with affected Foreign Military Sales cases.”
Ukraine is set to receive the first shipments of redirected interceptors “over the coming weeks, certainly before the end of the summer,” Kirby said, adding that the reprioritization will likely extend over a period of 16 months covering the rest of this fiscal year and all of FY ‘25.
“And then, after that countries that have been asked to delay will start to get their deliveries,” Kirby said.