According to The Atlantic, citing a Republican congressional official, a major obstacle to the Trump administration’s decision on licensing Ukraine to produce air-defense launchers and missiles, including the Patriot system, has reportedly been concerns from its manufacturers, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The official said the companies are expected to publicly cite intellectual-property theft and technology-transfer concerns, but claimed their underlying concern is that Ukrainian engineers could improve the Patriot system and eventually manufacture it at greater scale, faster, and at significantly lower cost than existing U.S. production lines. If accurate, the concerns could create tension between efforts to expand Ukraine’s domestic defense production and the interests of U.S. defense manufacturers.