Allies Foot Bill for 500 Patriots to Ukraine

I'll just tell you what happened. The State Department has approved a possible $2.1 billion sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles to Ukraine. The department says no American money is being spent: Canada, Germany and Norway are covering the bill through a US program called JUMPSTART, and Lockheed Martin is the principal contractor.

The catch is the calendar. Two people briefed on the decision say the missiles haven't been built yet and aren't expected to arrive until a couple of years into the 2030s. Ukraine's Ministry of Defense is reportedly pressing the Pentagon to move faster, and one source has raised the possibility of drawing from existing US stocks, though nothing confirmed.

The approval comes as Russia escalates strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and as tensions run between Kyiv and the Trump administration. Allies paying their own way while American industry builds the hardware is the kind of arrangement worth watching.