The U.S. Navy has requested funding to procure Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles as part of its proposed fiscal year 2027 budget.
The request was identified in U.S. Department of Defense budget documents by X (formerly Twitter) user VirtualBayonet.
According to the documents, the Navy plans to spend about $1.7 billion to purchase 405 missiles.
Since the U.S. Navy does not operate its own Patriot systems, this procurement is likely related with the potential integration of these missiles into Mk 41 vertical launch systems used on American warships.
The idea of using Patriot missiles on U.S. Navy ships is driven by the current lack of relatively low-cost air defense systems capable of effectively intercepting ballistic targets. In particular, this refers to the segment of missiles priced at around $1–2 million per unit.
Currently, the primary air defense systems used by U.S. Navy ships include ESSM missiles with a range of up to 50 km, designed to intercept aircraft and cruise missiles, as well as long-range missiles of the Standard family – SM-2 and SM-6 – with ranges exceeding 150 km and a cost of more than $2–3 million per unit.
In this context, in the fiscal year 2026 budget, the U.S. Navy also requested approximately $416 million for work on integrating new missiles into shipboard systems, including the Aegis combat management system.
Despite the recent funding for integration efforts, Lockheed Martin demonstrated the concept of using Patriot missiles from ship-based vertical launch systems as early as 2023. At that time, the MIM-104 Patriot was presented as a full-scale mock-up placed inside a VLS cell.
The company emphasized that such solutions are particularly relevant for countries that do not have access to the Standard family of missiles but seek to equip their relatively small ships with long-range air and missile defense systems, including the capability to intercept ballistic targets.
Meanwhile, in the summer of 2023, Lockheed Martin announced the successful integration of the Patriot PAC-3 MSE with the shipborne AN/SPY-1D radar – the primary radar used on ships equipped with the Aegis Combat System.
Although the AN/SPY-1 is not a new system, it is based on a passive phased-array antenna and is capable of detecting aerial targets, including aircraft, at ranges of up to 400 km. At the same time, the official maximum detection range of this radar remains classified.
At present, it is not yet known whether Patriot missiles will be integrated with next-generation radar systems such as AN/SPY-6 and AN/SPY-7, which are intended to replace the aging AN/SPY-1.
