Missile and Aircraft Targets Successfully Destroyed by Patriot in Test

Missile and Aircraft Targets Successfully Destroyed by Patriot in Test

A Patriot missile battery sits on an overlook at a Turkish army base in Gaziantep, Turkey, Feb. 4, 2013. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter was visiting the area to view Patriot missile batteries installed with assistance from U.S. Service members. U.S. and NATO Patriot missile batteries and personnel deployed to Turkey in support of NATO?s commitment to defending Turkey?s security during a period of regional instability. (DoD photo by Glenn Fawcett/Released)

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The Israeli Airforce (IAF) will be briefed soon on the latest series of tests with an improved version of the Patriot surface-air missile.

The IAF is operating the Patriot as its main anti aircraft system. Upgrades have been performed during the years, but the improvements demonstrated in a recent series of tests is very impressive.

The newly upgraded Raytheon Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defense system successfully proved its capabilities in destroying cruise missiles and aircraft with different kinds of interceptors in the recent tests. U.S. Army Soldiers conducted the engagement.

According to USA Vision, the combat-proven Patriot system, upgraded with a suite of enhancements collectively known as Post-Deployment Build 8, successfully detected, tracked and engaged a cruise missile surrogate target. It then destroyed the target with a GEM-T interceptor.  A few minutes later, the PDB-8 Patriot repeated the process with a tactical fighter aircraft target, and destroyed the plane using a PAC-3 MSE interceptor.

“Using an interceptor mix to destroy different threats is cost-effective and provides commanders with operational flexibility,” according to Ralph Acaba, Raytheon vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense. “This latest success keeps the Patriot’s PDB-8 upgrade on track for fielding in 2018.”

During the test, which took place in a very challenging radar environment, the threats were manually engaged by soldiers using the shoot-look-shoot method of fire. This meant that after the first interceptor was fired, Patriot soldiers “watched” to see if the cruise missile or aircraft was destroyed.  If it wasn’t, then a second interceptor would be fired.  In both cases the target was destroyed by the first interceptor.

The PDB-8 upgrade, which was funded by the 13-nation Patriot partnership, allows Patriot to take advantage of many of the PAC-3 MSE’s advanced capabilities.  PDB-8 also builds on the lessons learned from combat engagements by five nations, 1,400 flight tests and 3,000-plus ground tests.

The PAC-3 MSE destroys threats via the force of the collision. The lower-cost, combat-proven GEM-T interceptor flies close to threats and explodes, destroying the missile or aircraft in the process.

This is the final of four developmental tests for PDB-8, proving that this build is ready for operational testing by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command.