Fearing China's Hypersonic Weapons, US Navy Plans to Arm Ships with Patriot Missiles

This U.S. Navy photo released Jan. 18, 2024, by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Ministry of Defense of Japan shows the U.S. Navy ship USS Kidd following the USS Carl Vinson during a naval exercise with the Japanese and South Korean navies.

Fearing China will deploy hypersonic weapons to attack fleets in the Pacific, the U.S. Navy plans to arm some of its ships with Patriot interceptor missiles, two senior defense officials told Reuters.

One of them said the Navy ships would carry the highly maneuverable Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors, which are used in the U.S. primarily by the Army.

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The integration of the Lockheed Martin missiles into the Navy’s air defense system comes amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, where China is rapidly modernizing its military, and successful missile defense efforts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

It’s unclear how many PAC-3s the Navy will need, but overall demand is “off the charts,” said Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

There’s a lot of interest from foreign governments, he said, and the U.S. military wants to more than double production in the coming years.

The United States has offered to co-produce Patriot missiles with key ally Japan, and Lockheed Martin wants to set up a new production line to make the interceptors in Florida, industry sources told Reuters.

Beijing’s most advanced anti-ship ballistic missile, the DF-27, was tested in 2023. The Pentagon's military report on China that year said the weapon was “in development.”

Prepared by: Sergey Daga