Patriot Missiles

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Patriot Missiles

• Michael Beattie

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Overview

• Sophisticated guided missile
• Designed to detect, target, and hit an incoming
  missile
• Depends on ground-based radar

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Overview

• Batteries consist of 5 components
• Missiles
• Missile launcher
• Radar antenna
• Equipment van (Engagement Control Station-ECS)
• Power plant truck

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The Missiles

• Patriot missile currently comes in 2 forms
• Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-2
• PAC-3 (Deployed in 2002)

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The Missiles

• PAC-2 Missile
• 17 feet long
• 16 inches in diameter
• Fins extend another 16 inches
• Weighs almost 2000 pounds
• Carries 200-pound fragmentation bomb
• Flies at mach 5

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The Missiles
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The Missiles

• 4 PAC-2 Missiles fit on a launcher
• PAC-2 should either destroy incoming missile or
  knock it off course
• Not meant to actually hit target

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The Missiles

• PAC-3 Missile
• Weighs only 686 pounds
• Only 10 inches in diameter
• Fragmentation warhead weighs only 160 pounds
• 16 PAC-3 missiles can fit on one launcher

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The Missiles

• Idea for PAC-3 is to actually hit and completely
  destroy incoming target
• PAC-3 has its own built-in radar transmitter and
  guidance computer

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The Launcher

• A Patriot missile battery can have up to 16
  launchers
• Each launcher is about the size of a
  tractor-trailer rig
• Each launcher has its own power supply

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The Launcher
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The Radar

• Scan skies for incoming targets
• Detect a potential target
• Determine trajectory, speed and heading

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The Radar

• Provide information to identify target
• Track Patriot missiles after launch
• Illuminate the target

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The Radar

• Patriot system uses a phased-array antenna
• Can track up to 100 targets and 9 outbound
  Patriot missiles
• Antenna has a 63 mile range

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The Radar
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The ECS

• Command center of the Patriot missile battery
• Contains stations for 3 operators and the
  computers that control the battery
• Inside there are 2 radar consoles and a
  communication station

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The ECS
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How they work

• PAC-2
• Radar antenna scans for targets
• Communicates with ECS
• ECS launches missile
• Continues to track target
• Tracks outbound Patriot missile
• Illuminates incoming target

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How They Work

• PAC-3
• Contains its own radar transmitter and computer
• Once launched it turns on its radar, finds target
  and aims for a direct hit
• Patriot and target missile approach at up to mach
  10 speed

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Criticism

• After Gulf War, scientists and Clinton
  Administration contended system didnt work
• Performance discrepancies impossible to reconcile
  because of inconsistent record keeping by army
• Fewer than half of 50 Patriot systems upgraded
  months before war