Plans for Japan to double production from 30 to 60 Patriots a year to help Ukraine is being delayed by a shortage of seekers manufactured by Boeing, the Japanese plant has a limit of 60 and cant expand capacity further without a new plant being built. Boeing began expanding Seeker production capacity in the US by 30% last year but it wont come on stream until 2027 also delaying a plan to increase US domestic production from 500 to 650 Patriots a year (with another 100 manufactured abroad for a total of 750 by 2027).

 
Plans for Japan to double production from 30 to 60 Patriots a year to help Ukraine is being delayed by a shortage of seekers manufactured by Boeing, the Japanese plant has a limit of 60 and cant expand capacity further without a new plant being built. Boeing began expanding Seeker production capacity in the US by 30% last year but it wont come on stream until 2027 also delaying a plan to increase US domestic production from 500 to 650 Patriots a year (with another 100 manufactured abroad for a total of 750 by 2027).

Idk why they never gave seeker production licensing to Japan. This would have just solved things long before there ever would have been an issue.
 
View: https://x.com/AirPowerNEW1/status/1820830270460662203

 
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Given the urgent need to massively increase the production PAC2 and PAC3 missiles but there are bottlenecks in the production shouldn't the US DoD be thinking about opening a second-source production line?
 
Given the urgent need to massively increase the production PAC2 and PAC3 missiles but there are bottlenecks in the production shouldn't the US DoD be thinking about opening a second-source production line?
As I understand it the big issues is with the motors and guidence system.

There isnt many people in the US who can makes those with those who do are already at capacity with all the other similar gear like Standards, GMLRS, Nasa, etc who also need similar stuff.

So we are talking about a full from raw production build up which is going to take a few years even with the military pile driving OSHA and NIMBY into the ground. Assuming the Money could be pull from the corpses in Congress that is.
 
There isnt many people in the US who can makes those with those who do are already at capacity with all the other similar gear like Standards, GMLRS, Nasa, etc who also need similar stuff.
There's a few places that could make it. Micron and HP/etc in the Boise area, but the USgov would have to pay market rates for rush orders at the chip fabs.


So we are talking about a full from raw production build up which is going to take a few years even with the military pile driving OSHA and NIMBY into the ground. Assuming the Money could be pull from the corpses in Congress that is.
As to new factories in general, well, the way to pry money out of (the opposite of progress) is to locate the factories in the districts of the members of the committee.

Witness the 688 class, each named for the home city of each member of the Armed Services Committee at the time... And the F35.
 

Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, the Army’s program executive officer for missiles and space, on Monday announced the service’s intent to walk away from the effort, called the Lower-Tier Future Interceptor (LTFI). Instead of buying a new interceptor, which Lozano called “very expensive,” the Army will upgrade the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement currently made by Lockheed Martin, he told Defense News.
Lockheed had been preparing to compete for LTFI, and as of Tuesday afternoon, the Army had not yet informed the company of its specific path forward for future PAC-3 upgrades, said Tim Cahill, executive vice president of the company’s missiles and fire control business.
However, the decision didn’t catch Lockheed “flat footed,” as it typically invests in future capability enhancements on PAC-3 and has technology “waiting in the wings,” he added.
 
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Is Typ-4 the just the GaN version of TYP-2?
Appears to be completely different:

TPY-4

TPY-2
 
As understand Raytheon transferred production of the TPY-2 to GaN from GaAs end of 2016 which increased range by 50% / volume covered 300% plus, its an X-band high definition radar that requires 25,000 plus modules to populate its 100 sq ft array which makes it a very expensive at approx. $240 million, first GaN TPY-2 delivered September 2024 to Saudi Arabia, was talk of MDA funding retrospective upgrade of the 14 earlier radars to GaN.

https://www.rtx.com/news/news-cente...n-tpy-2-radar-for-the-kingdom-of-saudi-arabia


The new USAF Lockheed TPY-4 is a GaN software controlled expeditionary radar, it uses the longer L-band and so it uses many, many fewer modules of 1,000 plus, that makes it much cheaper at approx. $22 million, the lower L-band frequency gives it better clutter rejection and said angle of accuracy plus its air cooled as it’s a mobile expeditionary radar. Range 300 miles in rotating mode at 6 rpm, 540 miles in staring, mode, much lower ranges than the expensive TPY-2 THAAD radar.


The new MDA GaN S-band TPY-6 is a variant of the Lockheed LRDR/SPY-7. TPY-6 radars are for the defense of Guam and would be “transportable” rather than “mobile”, the difference is that “relocatable requires movement of multiple TPY-6 assemblies/modules while mobile units typically do not.”
 

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