diff --git a/.github/workflows/dynamo-pipeline.yml b/.github/workflows/dynamo-pipeline.yml
index 022abb9414ef..20e364ac0501 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/dynamo-pipeline.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/dynamo-pipeline.yml
@@ -25,9 +25,10 @@ on:
         type: boolean
         default: false
       build_timeout_minutes:
+        description: 'Timeout for the image build job. Matches the 60 min the other framework builds get in pr.yaml.'
         required: false
         type: number
-        default: 30
+        default: 60
       no_cache:
         description: 'Disable BuildKit cache-from/to. Nightly sets true for regression detection.'
         required: false
diff --git a/container/compliance/native_packages.yaml b/container/compliance/native_packages.yaml
index 5707dfd75151..7d7340e55f57 100644
--- a/container/compliance/native_packages.yaml
+++ b/container/compliance/native_packages.yaml
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ packages:
   # UCX — Unified Communication X, built from source in wheel_builder and used by
   # the NIXL transport. Installed to /usr/local (no dpkg metadata).
   - name: UCX
-    version: v1.20.x
+    version: v1.21.0
     license: BSD-3-Clause
     source: https://github.com/openucx/ucx
     images:
diff --git a/container/context.yaml b/container/context.yaml
index 60569c51dd86..2e8b31b442a0 100644
--- a/container/context.yaml
+++ b/container/context.yaml
@@ -42,9 +42,8 @@ dynamo:
   etcd_version: v3.5.30
 
   nixl_ref: v1.0.1
-  nixl_ucx_ref: v1.20.x
+  nixl_ucx_ref: v1.21.0
   nixl_gdrcopy_ref: v2.5.2
-  nixl_ucx_efa_ref: 9d2b88a1f67faf9876f267658bd077b379b8bb76
   nixl_libfabric_repo: https://github.com/ofiwg/libfabric.git
   nixl_libfabric_ref: v2.4.0
   # Keep in sync with upstream NIXL's contrib/Dockerfile.manylinux.
diff --git a/container/templates/wheel_builder.Dockerfile b/container/templates/wheel_builder.Dockerfile
index 79e64cdbfa16..2f05d43dca2d 100644
--- a/container/templates/wheel_builder.Dockerfile
+++ b/container/templates/wheel_builder.Dockerfile
@@ -77,9 +77,6 @@ ADD --checksum=sha256:f60e802b6f41350393e34b24793db888a8be514054769bd17e7a6e9c0c
     https://github.com/intel/xpumanager/releases/download/v1.3.6/xpu-smi_1.3.6_20260206.143628.1004f6cb.u24.04_amd64.deb \
     /tmp/xpu-smi.deb
 
-# Fetch UCX patch
-RUN wget --tries=3 --waitretry=5 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/intel/llm-scaler/35a14cbc08d714f460a29b7a7328df5620c8530f/vllm/patches/ai-dynamo-xpu/patches/ucx-v1.12.0.patch -O /tmp/ucx.patch
-
 # Install xpu-smi without explicitly changing the Intel compute runtime stack.
 RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends /tmp/xpu-smi.deb && \
@@ -376,9 +373,9 @@ RUN --mount=type=secret,id=aws-web-identity-token,target=/run/secrets/aws-token
     git clone https://github.com/openucx/ucx.git && \
     cd ucx &&  \
     git checkout $NIXL_UCX_REF &&	 \
-    if [ "$DEVICE" = "xpu" ]; then \
-    git apply --ignore-whitespace /tmp/ucx.patch; \
-    fi && \
+    # The intel/llm-scaler xe-GDR patch (ucx-v1.12.0.patch) is upstream since
+    # UCX v1.21.0 (ib_md.c xe srcversion check, ze_copy_md.c HOST bit); restore
+    # the fetch + git apply for DEVICE=xpu if this ref ever drops below v1.21.0.
     ./autogen.sh &&      \
     if [ "$DEVICE" = "xpu" ]; then \
      ./contrib/configure-release     \