German, US defence chiefs to discuss procurement of Patriot systems for Ukraine

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has announced that he will meet with his American counterpart, Pete Hegseth, in Washington on July 14 to discuss a "roadmap" for US security support in Europe and the procurement of Patriot air defence systems for the Ukrainian military.

According to the Financial Times, Washington had previously paused deliveries of these systems to Kyiv. Berlin has already supplied Ukraine with three such systems from its own stockpile but can no longer do so due to its own arms supply constraints.

Pistorius’s ministry is working on a long-term procurement plan for Germany through the 2030s, covering a range of weapons systems, including tanks, submarines, UAVs, and fighter jets.

“The weakness in the past was always that replacements were only procured once the existing ones were practically gone or broken,” Pistorius said, calling for weapons makers to stop complaining and “deliver” on re-arming Europe. “The industry knows perfectly well that it is now responsible for delivering,” he added.

“Unfortunately, we still experience delays in individual projects, where everything seems settled, and then delays occur on the industry side — which I then have to account for,” Pistorius said, adding: “Industry needs to ramp up its capacities. That applies to ammunition, to drones, to tanks — really to almost every area.”

Germany has spent several weeks trying to secure permission from Donald Trump to purchase at least one Patriot system from the U.S. for Ukraine. So far, Trump has made no commitments on the matter. Instead, he has been pressuring Berlin to hand over one of its own nine remaining missile defense systems to Kyiv.

By Khagan Isayev