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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the White House and Congress for licenses to manufacture Patriot missiles, warning that current US production levels are dangerously low.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, the United States burned through a massive number of its Patriot interceptors during the recent war with Iran, firing off more than 1,000 of them, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). That’s a serious problem, because Patriots aren’t something you can just crank out on demand. They’re complex, high-end weapons with long production timelines, and CSIS estimates it will take the US at least three years (until around mid-2029) just to rebuild its stockpile back to prewar levels. The new batch of interceptors the Army has ordered isn’t even projected to start arriving until 2029, and ramping up production isn’t a quick fix either, since it means building new facilities, hiring workers, and untangling supply chains full of specialized, hard-to-make components, none of which happens overnight. Making matters worse, the US isn’t the only one in line: at least 17 other countries rely on the same interceptor, and major buyers like Saudi Arabia and the UAE already had orders backed up for years. Now that the US is scrambling to refill its depleted shelves, it has reshuffled the delivery queue to put its own needs first, pushing others (like Ukraine) even further back and stretching an already long waitlist.

What’s going on now: Speaking in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, Zelensky said he pleaded with both the White House and Congress to approve licenses that would allow Ukraine to build Patriot interceptors, arguing that American output is “far below what today’s security environment requires.” He pointed to a stark figure: “60–65 anti-ballistic missiles per month, compared to current challenges, is nothing. It is no secret, and Russia knows this.” With Russia ramping up its own ballistic missile production, Zelensky warned that the shortfall “could lead to a crisis in different parts of the world.”

Zelensky said that allowing Ukraine to build the missiles itself would help far more than just Kyiv. “We can increase the production of Patriot missiles. This will help us. This will help the Middle East and any other country that the United States decides to help.”

The request comes after the US gave Poland the initial green light to build Patriots domestically, while Ukraine’s own long-running bid for a similar deal has gone nowhere. Zelensky also tied the squeeze to the recent US-Iran conflict, which he said helped drain global air-defense supplies, while expressing hope that the Middle East ceasefire would hold.

The strain isn’t lost on the US, which quadrupled its Patriot procurement last year with more than $1 billion in funding, though experts warn that adding manufacturing capacity is a slow, years-long process.