The United States and a group of European NATO members are set to sign a statement of intent on the sidelines of the alliance’s Ankara summit to establish co-production of Raytheon’s AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles and a European maintenance facility for Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 Patriot interceptors. Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Poland are expected to join the initiative, which will be formalised at a NATO Industry Forum on 7 July, according to a source cited by Reuters. The projects aim to free up production capacity at US plants while enabling the American defence contractors to increase domestic output.

Viewed from Washington, the arrangement addresses a pressing industrial bottleneck. Both missile types are in high demand in Ukraine, and the separate US-led military campaign against Iran has further depleted American weapons stocks, prompting President Donald Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act in mid-June. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Procurement Michael P. Duffy told the Ankara forum that the administration is ready to expand PAC-3 production beyond US borders, though the European country that will host the maintenance centre has yet to be selected. Trump has repeatedly pressed allies to raise defence spending and purchase more US equipment, while warning that Washington could reconsider its NATO commitments.

From the European vantage point, the co-production deal is part of a broader effort to demonstrate increased defence investment and preserve transatlantic cohesion. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that European members and Canada added $90 billion to their defence budgets in 2025, bringing the total to over $570 billion—a roughly 20 per cent year-on-year rise. On the summit’s opening day, allies were preparing to unveil arms contracts worth tens of billions of dollars. Yet the atmosphere is clouded by the fallout from the Iran war, which European officials say was launched without prior consultation. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran during the conflict triggered a spike in global energy prices that hit European economies, while most NATO members nonetheless provided airspace and bases to US forces. European leaders hope that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Rutte can manage Trump’s expected criticism, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz framing the message as “building a more European NATO so that NATO can remain transatlantic.”

Moscow interprets any expansion of Western military-industrial cooperation as direct participation in the Ukraine war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on 5 July that the conflict has “de facto escalated into a full-scale war against Russia,” naming Berlin, Paris, The Hague, Oslo and Washington as parties that help Ukraine target Russian forces using satellite intelligence and foreign weapons infrastructure. The missiles covered by the new agreement—AMRAAMs fired from NASAMS systems and F-16s, and PAC-3s for Patriot batteries—are precisely the munitions Kyiv relies on to counter Russian strikes. The statement of intent is to be signed later on Tuesday; the location of the maintenance hub remains undecided, while the US has begun a six-month review of its military posture in Europe and has already reduced some NATO-dedicated assets, including a carrier, tanker aircraft, fighters and drones.