According to Bloomberg, the promise of U.S. President Donald Trump to allow Ukraine to produce missiles for the Patriot air defense system cannot be implemented in the short term. Organizing their production in Ukraine, especially on a large scale, will become an extremely challenging task for years due to the technical complexity of the missiles themselves and the strict U.S. control over the relevant technologies, the agency writes on Wednesday, July 8. The degree of this complexity depends on which specific type of missiles is planned to be produced on the new line. The PAC-3 modification, costing about $5 million per missile and capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, is one of the most advanced air defense systems in the world and is produced only in two countries - the U.S. and Japan, Bloomberg further specifies. ## Bloomberg Expert: Production of Patriot Takes Years According to Becky Wasser, a leading defense expert at Bloomberg Economics, it takes years to produce a Patriot missile, which means that establishing their production in Ukraine in the short time required by the country will not be possible. "Moreover, the experience of rapid production of drones and missiles that Ukraine has may not be applicable to the production of Patriot due to the strict U.S. control over the relevant technologies," she believes. In addition, supply chains for current production are already overloaded, and opening a new line will require specialized equipment and training of personnel. This will also increase the project's implementation time, the agency points out. Bloomberg also notes that any new weapons manufacturing plant in Ukraine will become a priority target for Russian attacks. In this regard, some experts suggest that Ukraine should build a missile production plant for Patriot in a safer location, such as Poland. ## Trump Promised to Provide Kyiv with a License for Missile Production for Patriot Earlier that same day, Trump, during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit in Ankara, stated that the U.S. plans to provide Ukraine with a license to produce missiles for the Patriot air defense system. "One of the topics we will probably discuss today is that we will grant them the right to produce (missiles - Ed.) Patriot," Trump said. "We will show them how it’s done." In recent days, both Volodymyr Zelensky and other representatives of the Ukrainian leadership, in particular the official representative of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yuriy Ihnat, have stated about the catastrophic shortage of interceptor missiles for the Patriot systems in Ukraine. According to Ihnat, due to this, during the massive Russian attack on the night of July 6, the Armed Forces of Ukraine failed to shoot down any of the 29 ballistic missiles launched by Russia.