Patriot Missile Cost: PAC-3 MSE, PAC-2 and Battery Prices

Between about $4 million and $5.3 million, depending on the budget year and on what the figure includes. The Army’s fiscal 2027 budget request prices each PAC-3 MSE at $4.99 million, or around $5.3 million once support is counted, Calibre Defence reported in July. Earlier batches cost $3.9 million to $4.9 million each, depending on when they were bought.

The Navy, which is fitting the missile to its destroyers, budgets it more cheaply. It wants 405 PAC-3 MSE in fiscal 2027 for just over $1.73 billion, about $4.05 million a missile plus roughly $200,000 for each canister, The War Zone reported in April. The Army asks for 2,798 missiles for $12.2 billion, which works out to about $4.4 million each by Silent Dossier’s arithmetic.

Large contracts land in the same range. In September 2025 the Army signed a $9.8 billion multiyear contract with Lockheed Martin for 1,970 PAC-3 MSE and associated hardware for the United States and its partners, close to $5 million a missile with the hardware included.

A little over $2 million in the Army’s latest request, roughly half the price of a PAC-3 MSE. The fiscal 2027 budget lists the PAC-2 GEM-T at more than $2 million against $5.3 million for the MSE, Militarnyi reported in July, after the Army bought the missile for itself for the first time in more than 30 years.

European orders look dearer because they buy more than missiles. In January 2024 NATO’s support agency gave COMLOG, a Raytheon and MBDA joint venture, a contract worth up to $5.6 billion for up to 1,000 GEM-T for Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain. That price also covers new suppliers, test equipment, spares and a production line in Germany, so the $5.6 million average is not a unit price.

The price gap reflects a difference in design. The GEM-T explodes near its target and is the cheaper round against aircraft and cruise missiles. The PAC-3 MSE destroys its target by hitting it, which makes it the preferred round against ballistic missiles.

About $1.1 billion for a newly built battery, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimate that the Congressional Research Service repeats. Roughly $400 million of that is the system itself, meaning the radar, launchers and control station, and about $690 million is the missiles. The Pentagon does not publish an official figure.

More recent numbers fit that range. A new four-battery battalion with the IBCS command system and the new LTAMDS radar has an estimated procurement cost of $1.792 billion, according to an August 2026 CRS report summarised by Defence Industry Europe, or about $450 million a battery before missiles. Spain signed a $1.7 billion deal in December 2025 for four Patriot fire units with their radars, launchers, control stations and training equipment, about $425 million each.

A battery needs about 90 soldiers, one radar and six to eight launchers, according to the CSIS Missile Defense Project. A modern M903 launcher holds 12 PAC-3 MSE, so reloading one launcher costs about $60 million at the Army’s price, by Silent Dossier’s arithmetic.

Because they are hit-to-kill missiles that must strike a warhead closing at several kilometers a second, and until recently they were built in small numbers. The PAC-3 MSE carries its own radar seeker and steers with small rocket motors near its nose to collide with the target. It gets one chance, so every part is made and tested to that standard.

Volume is changing slowly. Lockheed Martin delivered 620 PAC-3 MSE in 2025, and in January 2026 it agreed a seven-year framework with the Pentagon to raise output from about 600 to 2,000 a year, Defense News reported. Suppliers are being paid to keep up: L3Harris received a $4.7 billion award in September to make the missile’s rocket motors. Seventeen partner nations have chosen the PAC-3, according to Lockheed Martin, and they all compete with the U.S. Army for the same production line.

Often $10 million or more, because air defenders may fire at least two interceptors at each incoming ballistic missile, Business Insider noted in March. At the Army’s price, two PAC-3 MSE cost about $10.6 million, by Silent Dossier’s arithmetic.

The attacker pays far less. An Iranian Shahed drone costs about $35,000, Defense News noted, which is why using a $4 million interceptor against one is a losing trade, as we explained in our Shahed drone cost explainer.

Yes, though none is in service yet. Lockheed Martin unveiled the PAC-3 ACE on July 20, 2026 at the Farnborough Airshow and says it will cost less than half as much as the PAC-3 MSE, Calibre Defence reported; the Army has asked industry for prototype interceptors under $1 million each. Anduril is pitching its Steelfin interceptor for the same launchers at about a third of the MSE’s price, as we reported in our Steelfin explainer.

For now the expensive missile remains the only one in quantity. THAAD, the higher layer of American missile defense, costs more than twice as much per shot, as set out in How Much Does a THAAD Missile Cost?, and our Iron Dome vs Patriot vs THAAD comparison explains which threats each one is meant to stop.