House panel wants cheaper Patriot missile

June 6, 2019

Defense News:

WASHINGTON — A House panel wants the Army to come up with a plan to get a cheaper missile for the Patriot air-and-missile defense system.

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee is pushing in its mark-up of the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill — released June 3 — for the Army to bring options to Congress for a low-cost interceptor to be used in the Raytheon-made Patriot system. That is because the most updated variant is roughly $5 million a shot, and a cheaper missile would be attractive to foreign customers with Patriot systems.

In recent years, reports have cropped up, for example, of Patriot missiles being used to take out cheap, commercial, off-the-shelf drone threats in the Middle East, fueling the desire to have a less expensive interceptor in the mix.

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