One industry official said putting the highly agile Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors, used primarily in the U.S. by the Army, aboard Navy ships anticipates advances in Chinese missile technology, including the use of highly maneuverable hypersonic weapons.
He said there was strong interest from foreign governments adding that the U.S. Army wants to more than double production in coming years.
The U.S. has tapped Japan, a key ally, as a location for joint production of Patriot missiles, and Lockheed Martin wants to establish a new production line for the missiles' seekers in Florida, industry sources have told Reuters.
That plant would complement Boeing's (BA.N), opens new tab seeker manufacturing efforts, and Lockheed Martin is pitching the benefits of additional production to the U.S. Army, which must sign off on it.
The PAC-3 has already shot down maneuvering hypersonic missiles in Ukraine. The Navy thinks it could add another high-probability layer to its anti-missile systems, which have not been battle-tested against such weapons.
The Navy told Reuters, "More testing is required in the development roadmap that will include launching PAC-3 MSE from a ship and validating communication with the SPY-1 radar," the main sensor in the Aegis missile system.
