Europe can’t rely on US for air-defense missiles, top EU official says

PARIS — Europe can’t rely on the United States to supply the continent with sufficient quantities of air-defense missiles, and needs to step up local production of interceptors, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius said at the Paris Defense and Strategy Forum on Tuesday.

Kubilius is on a “missile tour” of Europe to discuss with manufacturers how the European Commission can help with missile production, both for Ukraine and the European Union’s own stockpiles.

Ukraine needs around 2,000 missiles a year for the Patriot air-defense system , while the U.S. and the Gulf countries reportedly spent around 800 Patriot missiles in the first five days of the American-Israeli war on Iran, according to Kubilius. U.S. production of the interceptors for the time being stands at 750 Patriot missiles per year, according to the commissioner.

“You very quickly understand that you cannot rely for all your defense capabilities only on American production,” Kubilius said in a roundtable discussion on Europe’s security architecture. “Americans are not able to produce enough of them. So we need to develop our production.”

European countries should start a crash program to rapidly expand output of European-made air defense systems and interceptors, modeled on the European Union’s 2023 program to boost ammunition production, analysts at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a brief on Monday .

The biggest defense gap for Europe and its allies is against ballistic missiles, Kubilius said in a March 16 speech in Brussels. He said Ukraine faced 900 attacks by Russian ballistic missiles in 2025, with the Patriot system, made by Raytheon, the country’s main means of anti-ballistic-missile defense.

The commissioner kicked off his consultation of European missile and air-defense makers with visits to PGZ and Mesko in Poland, followed by visits to MBDA Germany and Diehl Defence as well as MBDA Italy last week. Kubilius is traveling to Sweden on Thursday, with a planned visit to Saab in Linköping on Friday to discuss Swedish missile capability.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called on the alliance to boost its air and missile defense by 400%.

The French-Italian SAMP/T system, manufactured by the Eurosam consortium between Thales and MBDA, is the only European alternative to Patriot. The system is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, with a coming upgrade promising improved anti-ballistic performance. Other European systems such as Diehl’s Iris-T, Kongsberg’s Nasams and MBDA’s MICA have shorter ranges.

Ukraine has received at least two SAMP/T systems, with at least one defending the Kyiv area. President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month his country will receive the first unit of the upgraded SAMP/T NG this year.

Still, the European system hasn’t been immune to issues around missile supply, with Zelenskyy in March 2025 citing a constant shortage of MBDA’s Aster missiles.

European missile systems are among the best in the world, and the challenge is to “restore depth” to the continent’s defense industry after 30 years of “peace dividend” that caused significant damage, MBDA Chief Executive Officer Éric Béranger said in the roundtable discussion with Kubilius.

“We realize that it’s not enough to simply have stockpiles, we must be capable of withstanding a war of attrition,” Béranger said. “And the entire industry is ready to do that, and is doing so today. It’s getting itself into battle order, and significant progress has been made since the start of the war in Ukraine.”

MBDA said in March last year it was ahead of schedule to increase production of Aster missiles by 50% in 2026 compared to 2022. The Aster is a complex missile with around 40,000 parts, according to Béranger.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——欧盟国防与航天事务专员安德留斯·库比留斯周二在巴黎国防与战略论坛上表示，欧洲不能指望美国向欧洲大陆供应足够数量的防空导弹，需要加大拦截导弹的本地生产力度。

库比留斯正在欧洲进行“导弹之旅”，与制造商讨论欧盟委员会如何帮助乌克兰和欧盟自身的导弹储备生产导弹。

据库比柳斯称，乌克兰每年需要约2000枚“爱国者”防空导弹系统导弹，而美国和海湾国家在美以对伊朗战争爆发后的前五天就消耗了约800枚“爱国者”导弹。这位专员还表示，目前美国每年生产的“爱国者”拦截导弹数量为750枚。

库比柳斯在一次关于欧洲安全架构的圆桌讨论会上说：“你很快就会明白，你不能仅仅依靠美国的产品来满足所有的国防需求。美国无法生产足够的国防装备。所以我们需要发展我们自己的国防能力。”

华盛顿战略与国际研究中心的分析师周一在一份简报中写道，欧洲各国应该启动一项紧急计划，以迅速扩大欧洲制造的防空系统和拦截器的产量，该计划以欧盟2023年提高弹药产量的计划为蓝本。

库比柳斯3月16日在布鲁塞尔发表讲话时表示，欧洲及其盟国最大的防御漏洞在于抵御弹道导弹。他指出，乌克兰到2025年将面临俄罗斯弹道导弹900次袭击，而该国主要的反弹道导弹防御系统是雷神公司制造的“爱国者”系统。

欧盟委员会委员库比柳斯上周首先访问了波兰的PGZ和Mesko公司，正式开启了对欧洲导弹和防空系统制造商的磋商。随后，他又访问了德国MBDA公司、迪尔防务公司以及意大利MBDA公司。库比柳斯将于周四前往瑞典，并计划于周五访问位于林雪平的萨博公司，讨论瑞典的导弹能力。

北约秘书长马克·吕特呼吁北约将其防空和导弹防御能力提高 400%。

由泰雷兹和MBDA组成的Eurosam财团制造的法意联合研制的SAMP/T系统是目前欧洲唯一能与“爱国者”导弹防御系统相媲美的方案。该系统能够拦截弹道导弹，即将进行的升级有望提升其反弹道导弹的性能。其他欧洲系统，例如迪尔公司的Iris-T、康斯伯格公司的Nasams以及MBDA公司的MICA，其拦截距离则相对较短。

乌克兰已接收至少两套SAMP/T系统，其中至少一套部署在基辅地区进行防御。总统泽连斯基本月初表示，乌克兰将于今年接收首套升级版SAMP/T NG系统。

不过，欧洲的导弹系统也未能幸免于导弹供应问题。泽连斯基在 2025 年 3 月指出，MBDA 公司的“​​紫菀”导弹一直处于短缺状态。

MBDA首席执行官埃里克·贝朗热在与库比留斯的圆桌讨论中表示，欧洲的导弹系统是世界上最好的系统之一，而挑战在于，在经历了30年的“和平红利”造成重大损害之后，如何“恢复”欧洲大陆国防工业的纵深。

贝朗热表示：“我们意识到，仅仅拥有储备是不够的，我们必须有能力打赢一场消耗战。整个行业都做好了准备，而且现在正在这样做。他们正在进入战斗状态，自乌克兰战争爆发以来，已经取得了显著进展。”

MBDA去年3月表示，其“紫菀”（Aster）导弹的增产计划提前完成，预计到2026年将比2022年提高50%。据贝朗热称，“紫菀”是一种结构复杂的导弹，由大约4万个部件组成。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。