World News
Two officials say Patriot stocks in Europe are beyond critical, and NATO says that is simply not the case
By Staff Writer | 28 August 2026
A United States defence official in Europe and a NATO official, neither of whom would be named, describe a shortage of interceptors. A NATO spokesman and the Pentagon rejected the account on the record on Thursday.
The United States military has a shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe that is beyond critical, and the war with Iran is the main reason for it. That is the account of two officials, one a United States defence official serving in Europe and one a NATO official, both of whom spoke on condition that they were not identified. It is their account and it is reported here as theirs.
The United States official said the shortfall that matters most is in Patriot interceptors, the munitions capable of stopping high speed ballistic missiles. In Europe, that official said, the American military definitely does not have enough of them to stop a sustained ballistic missile attack, and would have very limited capability against a single strike or against a missile that strayed off course. In the event of an attack on something like a military headquarters or a power station, the official said, NATO could find itself in the position Ukraine has been in and forced to take punch after punch in the mouth.
The answer on the record
Both denials came on Thursday and both were made by named officials.
simply not the case
Colonel Martin O'Donnell, United States Army, senior NATO military spokesperson
Colonel O'Donnell said NATO is able to block punches and holds enough air defence munitions to defend itself and to keep donating to Ukraine. The chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a written statement that claims of munition shortages are false. He said successful operations had already been carried out across several combatant commands, and that a ready arsenal was being maintained.
We have everything required to strike at the time and place of the President's choosing
Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman
The arithmetic that is public
Figures published by a Washington research institute put the expenditure during the conflict with Iran at 65 per cent of American Patriot interceptors, or roughly 1,500 of 2,330. About 600 interceptors went to Ukraine under the previous United States administration. Separately, about 600 are due to be built this year, including those destined for Europe, against a stated production goal of 2,000 a year by 2030. Those two figures of about 600 are not the same thing and should not be read together.
NATO says the first Patriot production facility in Europe is expected to open in Germany in September, with deliveries possibly beginning early next year, and that the first of them would go to countries that have already placed orders, among them Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain. Germany's defence ministry said it does not comment on stockpiles.
The substitutes are thin. The two officials also described shortages of the army tactical missile system, a medium range weapon for striking behind a front line. The position on offensive munitions is less severe, because several forces in Europe hold their own long range air launched weapons. For air defence proper, the nearest alternative is the upgraded French and Italian ground based system, which has not yet been used in combat and whose current version has a shorter range than the Patriot. Warships can act as mobile air defence but may be too far from what they are meant to protect.
The dispute is about a number that neither side will publish. One account comes from two officials who will not be named; the other from two spokesmen who will. Nothing in either can be checked from outside, and the only quantities on the record are a research body's estimate rather than a count of what is in store. A reader is entitled to hold both accounts open.
The war with Iran reaches six months on Friday. American stocks held in Europe were moved to the Middle East during it, and large numbers of interceptors have been fired there against Iranian drones and missiles.