Defense Department selects Poland for new PAC-3 maintenance facility

WASHINGTON — Poland will officially be the home to a new Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) missile maintenance facility, the Defense Department announced today. 

“By investing national resources to establish this critical sustainment capability on NATO’s Eastern Front, Allies are sending a clear message: the Alliance is united, serious about deterrence, and ready to back our words with action,” Michael Duffey, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said today in a Pentagon release. 

The facility will provide maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities for Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 missiles, which will “dramatically shorten turnaround times and further secure critical supply lines,” the announcement read. Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden will also provide support to the new facility via “critical supply chain” integration. 

“The regional hub will significantly enhance operational readiness across Allied air and missile defense forces, ensuring rapid surge capacity during crisis and reinforcing credible collective deterrence along NATO’s Eastern Front,” the announcement read. 

Today’s announcement, which was made during NATO’s Conference of National Armaments Directors, comes after Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz shared in a July social media post that Poland would be part of an agreement to bring a PAC-3 servicing facility to Europe. At the time of Kosiniak-Kamysz’s post, it was unclear where the facility would be established. 

“Fusing Allied investment with world-class American defense technology directly translates transatlantic industrial capacity into combat power — keeping launchers loaded, sustaining critical operations, and ensuring NATO Allies are prepared to fight tonight,” the Pentagon wrote in its announcement today. 

Though the Poland facility will not be responsible for manufacturing PAC-3 missiles, the announcement follows previous remarks from Pentagon officials stating they are looking for options for how to license production of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia.

The facility announced today is not the first Patriot plant in Europe. In late 2024, construction began on a facility in southern Germany that plans to produce over 1,000 PAC-2 interceptors for NATO allies. The facility is in Germany and was established by Germany, the Netherlands and Spain in a deal worth nearly $6 billion.