KYIV, Ukraine — U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday at a NATO summit in Ankara that the United States will grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air‑defense systems, a step that could expand Ukraine’s domestic weapons capacity but is expected to take years to realize.

Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian and U.S. diplomats and defense officials must now work to finalize the licensing arrangements. The license would not automatically allow the manufacture of complete Patriot batteries, which include launchers, radars, command posts and missiles, but could cover specific components such as interceptor missiles or final assembly of imported kits.

Serhii Beskrestnov, adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, said a U.S. license would typically provide technical documentation, specialist training and supplier contacts to help launch manufacturing.

Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, development director of Fly Group Ukraine, said Trump’s wording was ambiguous because it referred broadly to producing “Patriots” without specifying missiles, launchers, radars or other parts. He noted that missile production requires a extensive supply chain involving hundreds of companies that make control surfaces, engines, guidance systems and communications equipment.

Yehor Chernev, deputy chairman of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence, estimated that legal and bureaucratic steps could be launched within months, but that establishing a pilot production line would likely require 18 to 24 months before the first weapons are produced. He added that producing a PAC‑3 missile in the United States takes about 24 months, and its solid‑fuel rocket motor about 30 months, with sensitive components such as the active radar seeker likely remaining under U.S. control.

Dr. Thomas Withington, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, said that while Ukraine’s defense industry could assist, the country would still need time to set up facilities, train workers and secure supply chains, and that the capability would not address immediate air‑defence threats.

Examples of licensed production abroad show the process can be slow. Japan has produced Patriot missiles under a license with Lockheed Martin for decades, and Germany began producing Patriot GEM‑T missiles in 2022 after a joint venture between Raytheon and MBDA Deutschland, with a new facility expected to support European stocks and potentially Ukraine. In both cases, facilities were protected from enemy attack.

Any facility assisting Ukraine would be a high‑value target for Russian forces, according to Khrapchynskyi, meaning production would need to be located in protected or underground sites. Officials said the arrangement would lay a foundation for Ukraine to become a long‑term producer of air‑defence systems, but it would not solve current missile shortages in the near term.