Bombe su Kharkiv e nodo armi: Zelensky chiede agli Alleati di anticipare i Patriot
Proseguono gli attacchi della Russia sull’Ucraina oggi, sabato 31 ottobre 2026. Tre persone sono rimaste ferite e dieci edifici residenziali sono stati danneggiati in un raid con droni su Kharkiv. Lo ha riferito dal suo canale Telegram il sindaco Ihor Terekhov, scrive l’agenzia Ukrinform.
Intanto il presidente ucraino Volodymyr Zelensky ha commentato su X l’approvazione da parte degli Usa della vendita di 500 missili intercettori Patriot Pac-3, per un valore stimato di 2,1 miliardi di dollari. “Una decisione forte da parte del dipartimento di Stato americano”, ma le consegne dei missili Patriot all’Ucraina “potrebbero iniziare solo tra qualche anno”, mentre Kiev ne ha bisogno immediatamente per contrastare gli attacchi russi, ha ha dichiarato Zelensky . “Chiediamo ai nostri partner americani di trovare una soluzione per il periodo in cui esiste un pericolo reale e una reale necessità di utilizzare gli intercettori Pac-3“, ha sottolineato Zelensky, ricordando che “in questo momento i russi attaccano le nostre infrastrutture energetiche ogni singolo giorno”.
Secondo il presidente ucraino, Stati Uniti e alleati europei dispongono già di scorte sufficienti di missili Patriot per soddisfare le necessità immediate di Kiev, che potrebbero essere successivamente reintegrate attraverso i contratti già finanziati dall’Ucraina e dai suoi partner. Una soluzione che Zelensky ha definito “l’approccio giusto” e “assolutamente fattibile”.
Il dipartimento di Stato americano ha annunciato ieri il via libera alla vendita, sottolineando che rafforzerà le capacità di difesa aerea e antimissile ucraine, senza tuttavia indicare una tempistica per le consegne. Secondo fonti informate citate dal Guardian, i missili, che devono ancora essere prodotti, potrebbero arrivare soltanto nei primi anni del prossimo decennio. Kiev starebbe quindi sollecitando il Pentagono ad anticipare le forniture, attingendo agli arsenali statunitensi per poi reintegrare le scorte con i nuovi missili.
Merz: “A novembre riunione dei Volenterosi a Berlino”
Il cancelliere tedesco Friedrich Merz ha nel frattempo invitato i membri della Coalizione dei Volenterosi a una riunione a Berlino a novembre per coordinare un ulteriore sostegno all’Ucraina. Lo scrive Ukrinform. Il cancelliere tedesco ha fatto l’annuncio a Seul, facendo il punto sulle sue visite a Singapore, in Giappone e in Corea del Sud.
“Ho avuto colloqui in tutti e tre i paesi per discutere di un ulteriore sostegno all’Ucraina. La natura e le forme concrete di questo sostegno variano da Paese a Paese. Ma ovunque c’è stata una chiara espressione di volontà di aiutare e, soprattutto, di fare tutto il possibile per porre fine a questa guerra. Considero questo sostegno anche nell’ambito della Coalizione dei Volenterosi, i cui membri ho invitato a Berlino tra una settimana. Non allenteremo i nostri sforzi a sostegno dell’Ucraina“, ha dichiarato Merz.
"Lo que hacen los drones ucranianos con nuestras refinerías va claramente en detrimento de los mercados mundiales", advirtió el vice primer ministro ruso, Alexánder Novak, al alertar sobre una posible disminución en el suministro global de diésel.
Ukraine and the Netherlands are working together on a new missile defense project
"Bliksem" may be an effort to develop a ballistic missile interceptor that can hit incoming missiles above the atmosphere
It's a rare and valuable capability, and one Ukraine needs—but it won't come quickly or cheaply
Ukraine and the Netherlands will collaborate on an air-defense project called "Bliksem," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced during his visit to the Netherlands on Wednesday, 28 October.
Zelenskyy didn't offer a lot of details. But if the Bliksem initiative he referenced on Wednesday is the same Bliksem initiative that a consortium of European companies launched this summer, then Ukraine could be in line to acquire one of the world's most powerful missile interceptors.
But not quickly. Nor cheaply.
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The pan-European Bliksem project aims to develop a so-called "exo-atmospheric" interceptor. That is, a missile that can fly higher than 100 km—above Earth's atmosphere—in order to hit the most dangerous ballistic missiles during their mid-course phase of flight, before they tip back into the atmosphere and streak down toward their targets.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten met with the heads of Dutch and Ukrainian companies in the defense, energy, and software sectors, Zelenskyy said. "We defined key priorities and decisions that can strengthen our practical economic cooperation: defense production, joint technology and energy projects, industrial development, and, very importantly, satellite technologies and air defense," Zelenskyy said.
"Our teams have been tasked with working out a specific air defense project, Bliksem," Zelenskyy continued. "We have already started this work."
If the Dutch-Ukrainian Bliksem is the same as the wider European Bliksem, then it's an effort to develop a missile in the class of the American Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), as well as the US-Israeli Arrow 3. All three are exo-atmospheric.
Cued by radars and satellites and boosted 100 km into the sky, they punch right through the hazy Kármán line that delineates the border between the atmosphere and space.
Cold of space
Chart: Euromaidan Press
Up there in the cold vacuum, the interceptors can see clearly with sensitive infrared seekers—and distinguish incoming ballistic missiles from any decoys the missiles may deploy. Thrusters maneuver the interceptors to directly impact incoming missiles, destroying them with kinetic energy rather than explosive warheads.
While Germany has a few Arrow 3s, most European powers lack exo-atmospheric interceptors. Their only option for shooting down the heaviest incoming ballistic missiles (such as Russia's intermediate-range Oreshnik) is to hit them in the final seconds of flight, when even a destroyed ballistic missile can cause damage by scattering supersonic debris.
To plug that air defense gap, this summer five European companies—Destinus, MBDA, Safran, Airbus, and Thales—signed a letter of intent to form the Bliksem EXO consortium. The goal: to test the interceptor's kill vehicle in space in 2027.
The companies signed in Paris at the first meeting of an anti-ballistic coalition that Ukraine launched with nine European countries, including the Netherlands, with Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten present. They said the design would draw on Ukraine's experience against Russian missiles. The lead firm, Destinus, is Dutch. Given Zelenskyy's statement, it's possible Ukrainian firms will join the consortium itself.
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If the timeline holds and any technology Bliksem EXO develops actually works, the result could be a new interceptor rivaling the THAAD, SM-3, and Arrow 3—and one unbound by American export restrictions. Europe could arm itself for mid-course missile defense. Ukraine could, too, significantly stiffen its missile defenses that are in a state of collapse owing to a deepening shortage of American-made Patriot missile interceptors.
Don't expect Bliksem to bear fruit quickly or cheaply. The THAAD, SM-3, and Arrow 3 interceptors each needed a decade or more to move through development to deployment. And leaving aside their multi-billion-dollar development costs, the missiles are expensive. A single THAAD interceptor costs $12 million. Even the Americans can't afford to stockpile more than a few hundred THAADs at a time.
A Bliksem interceptor could eventually—and at great cost—lend Ukrainian forces a capability they currently lack: an active defense against a big ballistic missile like the Russian Oreshnik.
Ukraine is also building its own anti-ballistic system, FREYJA, with European partners. Zelenskyy wrote on 21 October that officials had found ways to speed it up so it reaches testing by the end of this year.
But neither project will solve a much more urgent problem: how to shoot down the dozens of smaller ballistic missiles Russia has been launching at Ukrainian cities every month. Ukraine got only 24 Patriot interceptors from the US in three months and needs about 350 a month, Zelenskyy told ABC News on 23 October. Meanwhile, Russia produces 55–60 Iskanders a month, according to Ukrainian military intelligence.
To stop the ballistic barrage, Ukraine simply needs more Patriots—and soon.
Greece has agreed to Saudi Arabia’s request to keep its Patriot missile battery deployed in the Kingdom amid the current critical situation in the Middle East, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud during a meeting in Riyadh. The prime minister condemned the attacks against Saudi Arabia and underlined Greece’s […]
Lockheed Martin has unveiled the PAC-3 Edge, a new interceptor that would represent the top tier of the U.S. Army’s Patriot air defense missile family. The missile is being developed to deliver greater performance against advanced threats than the current PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE), as the Army advances a competition for its next-generation interceptor.
The PAC-3 Edge displayed at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual convention. Howard Altman
The company says PAC-3 Edge will offer improved performance against increasingly challenging aerial threats, including advanced ballistic and hypersonic missiles. The design builds on the PAC-3 MSE’s existing technology while incorporating a new seeker, an upgraded control system, and a more advanced solid rocket motor developed with Northrop Grumman.
In terms of appearance, PAC-3 Edge differs significantly from the PAC-3 MSE. It does away entirely with the mid-body strakes. The missile body also lacks the distinctive tapered section that separates the narrower forward section from the broader rear section on the MSE version.
An overview of the improvements found on the PAC-3 MSE variant over its predecessors. Lockheed Martin
Lockheed announced on October 9 that it had been selected to advance to the next phase of the Army’s Future Interceptor program. Company officials said testing is expected to begin in 2027, with initial deployment targeted for 2031.
The Army’s selection of Lockheed and another unnamed competitor marks a significant development in the service’s effort to improve the Patriot system’s ability to deal with more sophisticated threats. The Army previously abandoned its Lower-Tier Future Interceptor (LTFI) program in 2024, citing cost concerns, and instead emphasized incremental improvements to the existing PAC-3 MSE. The subsequent emergence of the Future Interceptor competition points to renewed interest in a more substantial leap in capability.
A PAC-3 interceptor seen at the moment of launch. U.S. Department of Defense
A More Capable Patriot Interceptor
PAC-3 Edge is intended to preserve the advantages of the existing PAC-3 family while improving the missile’s ability to engage targets at longer ranges and higher altitudes.
One of the central changes is a new seeker being developed by Lockheed Martin’s Strigo Product Center. The company says the technology will improve target detection and tracking, helping the interceptor deal with more demanding threats. The company has not disclosed the seeker’s technical details, but one possibility is a dual-mode or multimode configuration, combining different sensing methods to improve target acquisition and tracking in challenging conditions. Such an approach could help an interceptor maintain a reliable track against maneuvering targets and better distinguish real threats from decoys or other countermeasures.
Tim Cahill, president of Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) for Lockheed Martin, told TWZ that the same seeker technology that will be used in PAC-3 Edge will also find its way into future offensive and defensive systems going into the future. “So it isn’t just a one single seeker solution, but it will be a family of seekers that will operate across a number of regimes,” Cahill explained. “Frankly, I’d like to not tell everybody exactly what we’re doing, but it is clearly different from what is out there right now,” Cahill said, adding that hardware assemblies and components are now being tested in the lab, and that seekers have been flown on aircraft testbeds.
The missile will also use a three-pulse (as opposed to two-pulse) solid rocket motor designed by Northrop Grumman. Unlike a conventional motor that provides most of its thrust in a single sustained burn, a multi-pulse design can deliver thrust at different points during flight. That can help preserve energy for the terminal engagement, when an interceptor may need to maneuver aggressively to reach a target.
Lockheed says the combination of the new seeker, propulsion system, and control system improvements will provide greater maneuverability and improve performance at extended ranges and higher altitudes. To ensure greater agility, Jason Reynolds, vice president and general manager of Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) at Lockheed Martin, explained that the new missile adds a greater number of more capable attitude control motors (ACMs), compared to the PAC-3 MSE. These small thrusters ring the missile’s forward body.
The new characteristics could be particularly important against maneuvering ballistic missile warheads and hypersonic weapons, which can pose difficult interception problems because of their speed, altitude and dynamic flight profiles. However, the company has yet to demonstrate PAC-3 Edge’s performance in flight testing.
The extent to which PAC-3 Edge could overlap with, or potentially augment, the capabilities of the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system also remains unclear. THAAD is designed to intercept ballistic missiles at higher altitudes and longer ranges than Patriot, where midcourse window bleeds into the terminal intercept window. If PAC-3 Edge delivers a substantial improvement in engagement range and altitude over PAC-3 MSE, it could potentially provide at least some backfill for THAAD.
The announcement did not provide detailed performance figures for the new interceptor, including its maximum engagement range, speed, or specific target set. It also did not establish how much better the missile will perform than the PAC-3 MSE in operational conditions.
Addressing An Air Defense Force Under Pressure
The Army has a pressing need to improve its air and missile defense capabilities while expanding the number of interceptors available to its forces.
A Patriot system received by Ukraine is seen on the Day of Ukrainian Air Force on August 4, 2024, at an unspecified airbase in Ukraine. Photo by Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images VITALII NOSACH
PAC-3 MSE is currently the most advanced operational member of the PAC-3 family. It is designed primarily as a hit-to-kill interceptor, destroying targets through the force of direct impact, but it also incorporates a small explosive charge known as a “lethality enhancer,” as TWZ has previously detailed.
PAC-3 Edge is intended to push those capabilities further still. Lockheed says the new missile is being designed to work within the Army’s existing and future integrated air and missile defense architecture, including the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) and the M903 Patriot launcher. The company has also identified containerized launchers and HIMARS Flex among the systems with which it intends to integrate the interceptor.
A graphic showing various load configurations for the M903 launcher, as compared to the previous M901 and M902 launchers. Lockheed Martin
Such compatibility could allow the service to retain much of its existing infrastructure while improving the performance of the weapons used within it.
The precise extent of that compatibility, however, will depend on development, testing, and integration work that remains ahead.
Production And Cost
Lockheed is developing PAC-3 Edge as the company and the Pentagon work to expand production of the existing PAC-3 MSE.
In January, Lockheed Martin announced a seven-year agreement with the Pentagon to more than triple annual PAC-3 MSE production capacity, initially targeting an increase from roughly 600 interceptors to 2,000 a year. The effort subsequently received a major funding boost in July, when the U.S. government awarded Lockheed a contract modification worth up to $53.86 billion, bringing the total multiyear contract value to $58.62 billion. Lockheed says the effort is intended to more than triple production by the end of 2030, while expanding its workforce and investing in manufacturing infrastructure and its supply chain.
Those efforts could provide a foundation for producing PAC-3 Edge if the missile completes development and enters service. Lockheed has said the new interceptor will be manufactured on its existing PAC-3 production line in Camden, Arkansas, with factory modernization expected to support the eventual transition.
PAC-3 MSE in production in Camden, Arkansas. Lockheed Martin
The company has also highlighted substantial internal investment in the new missile and its seeker technology. That investment could reduce development risk and give Lockheed greater control over critical components, although the program’s final cost and production schedule remain important unknowns.
The broader challenge is not simply developing an interceptor with better performance. Advanced missiles can be expensive, and air defense forces must balance the capabilities of individual weapons against the number they can afford to procure and keep available. Sustained combat operations can rapidly consume interceptor inventories, making production rates and replacement costs central considerations.
Cahill says the company has also identified the opportunity to mix and match components between PAC-3 Edge and other missile offerings from Lockheed Martin. “We are getting increasingly modular, and increasingly we’re mixing and matching pieces and parts,” he said.
Ultimately, if it chooses PAC-3 Edge, the U.S. government will decide exactly how to handle production of the PAC-3 MSE and the new missiles. “We would expect the typical thing is you’ll feather them, so you would expect that over time MSEs would come down,” Cahill continued. “We’re still talking, seven, eight, nine, 10 years away. You would expect that the Edge production would go up, but there’s plenty of capacity in the factory to manage whatever surges are going to be needed there.”
At the same time, it should be noted that Lockheed Martin is also working on a lower-cost PAC-3 development, the PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector (ACE). The company says that this interceptor will cost less than half as much as the PAC-3 MSE, meaning it would have a price tag of around $2.5 million. The company says that the PAC-3 ACE will preserve two-thirds of the capability the PAC-3 MSE had, and it has already generated considerable international interest.
A rendering of the PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector (ACE). Lockheed Martin
Future Interceptor Competition
Lockheed has confirmed that it is one of two companies selected to continue in the Army’s Future Interceptor competition. The identity of the other competitor has not yet been disclosed, and the Army has not publicly provided a complete account of the competition’s requirements.
The effort follows the cancellation of the earlier Lower-Tier Future Interceptor (LTFI) program, which had involved Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. At the time, the Army opted to focus on upgrades to the PAC-3 MSE and on better integration of its existing air and missile defense systems.
Gen Lozano, PEO Missiles & Space, tells @JenJudson that they have cancelled the Lower Tier Future Interceptor program, which would have succeeded the PAC-3 MSE. Instead they will upgrade MSE, and want to move forward with THAAD integration into IBCS. #AUSA2024pic.twitter.com/NZMPgDH4KP
The renewed competition suggests that incremental upgrades alone may not be sufficient to address the Army’s longer-term requirements. The development of faster, more maneuverable missiles and other advanced aerial threats is driving demand for interceptors capable of operating across a wider engagement envelope.
For PAC-3 Edge, which is designed to address emerging threat requirements, the planned 2027 testing start and 2031 deployment target leave substantial development work to complete, including demonstrating the seeker’s performance, validating the propulsion system, and proving the missile’s ability to engage representative targets.
For now, the unveiling establishes the direction Lockheed wants to take the Patriot interceptor family. Whether PAC-3 Edge can deliver the promised increase in performance, while meeting the Army’s cost and production requirements, will become clearer as the program progresses. Regardless, from what is being experienced on the battlefield, a more capable, higher-reaching Patriot would be a very welcome addition to the Army’s Patriot family.
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