Raytheon [RTN] recently said its modernized Patriot Air and Missile Defense System successfully fired two Lockheed Martin [LMT] PAC-3 missiles to engage a tactical ballistic missile (TBM) at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
Raytheon is the Patriot System Integrator, while Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the Patriot PAC-3 missile system.
Sanjay Kapoor, vice president for Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems business, said: “The demonstrated flawless performance of the modernized Patriot system means our customers can deliver the most advanced air and missile defense capabilities to warfighters quickly, affordably and with lower risk exposure. With Patriot now in full-rate production, they can also expect improved reliability and reduced costs for decades to come.”
Richard McDaniel, vice president, PAC-3 Missile Program for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said the test was a typical PAC-3 ripple fire against a target and the “performance was exceptionally good,” as it has been in the past couple of years, a testament to the missile systems’ dependability and reliability.
The system’s dependability and reliability coupled with repeated excellent performance results in “a tremendous amount of interest around the world,” he told reporters in a call from White Sands.
This is the first time PAC-3 missiles have been fired from a new-production Patriot system, Raytheon said in a statement. This follows on the heels of the Army’s successful system-level guided flight test of the new-production Patriot system on March 21 and the successful test of the first ground-up production GEM-T missile (Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical) announced in October 2011.
From the configuration perspective, McDaniel said there was nothing different about firing PAC-3 missiles from the new launcher. As part of its work, Lockheed Martin supplies the missile in its canister and upgraded missile electronics for the ground segment, as a standard part of the missile being delivered today.
There will be more PAC-3 tests this year checking hardware upgrades and honing performance through software changes as part of the work to maintain overmatch against advancing threats. In early fall, Patriot will be part of an integrated layered regional defense test by the Missile Defense Agency that also involves the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, Aegis and Forward Based Mode AN/TPY-2 radar integrated C2BMC.
Since initial PAC-3 production in 2000, there have been two or three major configuration adjustments, McDaniel said. For example, configuration adjustments have involved moving from the baseline design to implementing design changes to reduce costs, refinements to Patriot systems owned by international customers and adjustments for obsolescence that also take advantage of technological advances, thus improving performance.