US, Ukraine discuss transfer of license to produce obsolete Patriot missiles — Trump

WASHINGTON, September 14. /TASS/. The US is discussing with Ukraine the possibility of granting Kiev a license to produce obsolete versions of ammunition for Patriot air defense missile systems, President Donald Trump told reporters.

When asked about the possibility of granting Ukraine a license to produce Patriot ammunition, the US leader said that Washington and Kiev "have been talking about it." He explained that the air defenses in question are "less sophisticated versions" of the interceptors. "You know what I mean. Far less sophisticated," the US leader added.

At the same time, he effectively left unanswered a request to comment on European countries’ plans to sell Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine. "We have a big stockpile of certain weapons. A lot of them are, you know, virtually unlimited. We have a very big stockpile. When it comes to the elite [weapons], a lot of that was given to Ukraine. But we're making it very rapidly right now," Trump said.

In early September, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that even if Ukraine were to obtain a US license, it would take several years to build facilities for the production of Patriot systems. According to him, the Patriot is an extremely complex weapon system, so the potential transfer of a license to Ukraine would not solve its short-term problem of a shortage of such systems. The top US diplomat added that negotiations on the matter are ongoing and may yield results in the future.