Europe can’t rely on US for air-defense missiles, top EU official says
By Rudy Ruitenberg
Mar 26, 2026, 06:15 AM
Netherlands, Nov. 19, 2025. (Sem van der Wal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
PARIS — Europe can’t rely on the United States to supply the continent with sufficient quantities of air-defense missiles, and needs to step up local production of interceptors, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius said at the Paris Defense and Strategy Forum on Tuesday.
Kubilius is on a “missile tour” of Europe to discuss with manufacturers how the European Commission can help with missile production, both for Ukraine and the European Union’s own stockpiles.
Ukraine needs around 2,000 missiles a year for the Patriot air-defense system, while the U.S. and the Gulf countries reportedly spent around 800 Patriot missiles in the first five days of the American-Israeli war on Iran, according to Kubilius. U.S. production of the interceptors for the time being stands at 750 Patriot missiles per year, according to the commissioner.
“You very quickly understand that you cannot rely for all your defense capabilities only on American production,” Kubilius said in a roundtable discussion on Europe’s security architecture. “Americans are not able to produce enough of them. So we need to develop our production.”
European countries should start a crash program to rapidly expand output of European-made air defense systems and interceptors, modeled on the European Union’s 2023 program to boost ammunition production, analysts at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a brief on Monday.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2026/03/26/europe-cant-rely-on-us-for-air-defense-missiles-top-eu-official-says/
