Deputy Defense Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka told private broadcaster Tok FM she was holding talks with US officials in Warsaw the same day.
"We are already well past exploratory talks—this process has been going on for several weeks," she said.
Poland has emerged as a leading contender for the project, competing chiefly with Germany, according to Sobkowiak-Czarnecka.
The plan traces back to a NATO summit in Ankara in July, where US President Donald Trump floated licensing Patriot missile production in Ukraine.
Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said she countered with a pitch to locate any facility in Poland instead, citing its relative security, and that US defense industry representatives had greeted the idea "with relief."
She said Trump has since dropped the Ukraine option altogether.
"He now says outright that producing Patriot missiles in Ukraine is off the table," Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said.
A final US decision could come soon, but implementation would take longer, Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said, depending on whether a plant is built from scratch or retrofitted from an existing facility.
"I think the decision itself is a matter of a month, maybe two," she said. "This is something that will be resolved this year, because the problem is growing."
Behind the urgency, she said, is a US defense industry stretched thin by global demand, including from the Middle East, that "is not able to keep up with American demand alone."
She said most countries seeking Patriot missiles rely entirely on US manufacturing, and that Japan is so far the only country licensed to produce them abroad.
A European production line, she added, would also let Poland manufacture missiles within the EU rather than depend solely on imports.
The talks build on an agreement Poland signed in Ankara with the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden to service PAC-3 Patriot missiles in Europe, a deal previously announced by Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP