Poland selected for new PAC-3 missile maintenance center

Lockheed Martin plans to open a dedicated maintenance facility in Poland for Patriot PAC-3 interceptors, the company announced Tuesday.

The PAC-3 Missile Maintenance Facility is being set up in coordination with the U.S. government and will serve NATO allies that operate the interceptors. The site will repair and recertify the missiles. According to the company, that will let allies get them back faster for resupply and testing.

Recertification is a periodic check that confirms a stored missile is still fit to fire. Allies keep PAC-3 interceptors in inventory for years, and each one has to go through that process to stay available for combat.

The company did not say where in Poland the facility will be built, when it will open or how much it will cost.

The plan dates to July, when five NATO countries, Poland among them, agreed to explore a European maintenance site for PAC-3 missiles at the alliance’s summit in Ankara. At the time, U.S. Under Secretary Michael Duffey told reporters that the host country had not been decided. Tuesday’s announcement names Poland.

Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden also signed that agreement and will help supply the facility, the company said.

The facility will be tied into Poland’s existing defense industry, creating skilled jobs and work for local suppliers, the company said. It gave no figures.

Polish industry already has a role in the PAC-3 program. In September 2025, state-owned Wojskowe Zakłady Elektroniczne completed validation of its production line for the missile’s attitude control section and attitude control motor, which steer the interceptor in flight.

“Lockheed Martin is a permanent part of Europe’s security landscape,” said Jay Pitman, president of Lockheed Martin International.

The facility is expected to service both PAC-3 models in allied use. The newer Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) has a dual-pulse rocket motor that gives it more range and altitude than the earlier Cost Reduction Initiative missile. Both destroy targets by hitting them directly.

The Polish site will maintain missiles, not build them. New PAC-3 MSE interceptors are assembled at Lockheed Martin’s plant in Camden, Arkansas, where output is set to grow. In July, the U.S. government raised the value of a seven-year PAC-3 MSE production contract to $58.62 billion, building on a $4.7 billion first-year award in April. The funding is meant to triple production capacity by the end of 2030.