View from London: The eight-inch radar that could decide Ukraine’s fate

Trump has walked back promises to let Kyiv build Patriot missiles amid concerns that vital technology could fall into Russian hands, The Telegraph writes.

Donald Trump had made giving Ukraine the secret blueprints to Washington’s most advanced missile sound simple.

“We’re going to give a licence to you to make Patriots,” the US president told Zelensky on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Ankara in July.

Once the Americans had shown the Ukrainians how it was done, Mr Trump suggested its factories could begin building their own missiles “pretty quickly”.

Or at least, that is what he thought.

Mr Trump has since walked back his promise. At a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland last Friday, he said: “It’s a hard thing to give away that kind of technology ... People that you give that technology, they can some day turn on you.”

His change of heart came from a growing dispute over whether to hand over the technology, which aides and experts fear could fall into Russian hands, The Telegraph has learnt.

At the heart of Kyiv’s desperation for Patriot missiles is a small radar made by Boeing in Alabama – a part so advanced that the White House restricts its exports even to its closest allies.

Known as the PAC-3 Ka-Band Active Radar Seeker, it serves as the eyes and ears of the interceptor, locating an incoming missile in its final moments of flight and steering the Patriot into a direct collision.

Refusing Ukraine access to this technology could prove existential.

A team of engineers assembles the Ka-Band Active Radar, which is housed inside the nose of the missile. The nose is about 10 inches in diameter, with the radar fitting neatly inside at an estimated eight inches wide.

When the missile gets close to its target, the radar generates a high frequency, which allows it to find, lock on to and physically collide with fast-moving ballistic or cruise missiles.

While 20 countries buy and operate the Patriot system, the US tightly guards the technical blueprints required to manufacture it and rarely permits foreign manufacturing. Germany and Japan are the only countries that have licenses to make their own.

Germany received its licence for Patriot missiles around 2022, as fears developed that Moscow might attack Western Europe. In 2024, Berlin was also granted a contract for a Germany factory to produce its own missiles by next year.

The US granted Tokyo a licence to produce the missile and its components in 2005, when Japanese leaders grew concerned that their own defence systems were no match for North Korea’s missile programme.

Preventing Patriots falling into Russian hands

Highly controlled American export law is designed to prevent advanced weapons technology leaving Washington’s control.

Permitting Ukraine to produce its own would require transferring not only the hardware but also the drawings, software and expertise needed to assemble the complex weapon.

A senior UK government source familiar with the American decision-making process said such hurdles were the primary factors for the delay.

Officials would also have to identify every Ukrainian factory, employee and subcontractor who has been granted access to the technology.

Crucially, they would need guarantees that those secrets could not be stolen or given to Russia.

A source close to the US president told The Telegraph that the administration was aware of Ukraine’s history of weapons that had been donated by its allies ending up on Europe’s black market.

Phil Breedlove, a retired four-star general who served as the commander of US European Command and the 17th Supreme Allied Commander Europe of Nato, said: “The story about giving away certain technologies is in fact a concern for the administration.

“I do believe that there is a fear that if we give this technology to Ukraine, that it will somehow make its way to Russia. There are probably voices inside this administration that are worried about the technology getting in Russian hands.”

It is a fear that Mr Trump and his aides seem to share privately. Boeing also shared this concern, with one industry insider saying it was “accurate” that concerns about the weaponry falling into enemy hands were a concern for top officials.

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