Redstone Rocket:
When the air raid siren went off, Troy Trulock had just stepped out of the shower. At the time, Trulock was a young Army captain deployed for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and one of Saddam Hussein’s Scuds was headed in the direction of his encampment on the Saudi Arabian side of the Iraqi border.
“In a scene that looked like something out of the Three Stooges,” according to Trulock, he and the 30 or so other Soldiers in the shower tent scrambled through the door and sought shelter as they scrambled to put on gear that would protect them from chemical attack.
“The ground shook when Patriot was fired,” Trulock said.
And then the all clear sounded. Patriot had intercepted the Scud, knocking the threat out of the sky.
“I truly owe my life to you all,” said Trulock, who retired from the Army in 2006 and is now mayor of Madison, a city recognized by CNN as one of the 50 best cities in America to live in.
Trulock was speaking to a group of more than 300 Army leaders, Soldiers, U.S. allies, civil servants, contractors and friends of Redstone Arsenal, who gathered Aug. 13 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Patriot program.
According to Col. John Eggert, project manager for the Lower Tier Project Office, the organization responsible for developing, testing and acquiring Patriot, the system didn’t reach this milestone by accident.
“Over the life of the program, the U.S. and its allies have invested billions in the ground system and in the missile,” Eggert told the audience, adding that the Patriot has been fired 192 times in anger during combat.
But according to Eggert, the numbers only tell part of the story.
“It’s not just about technology, it’s about a team of patriots making Patriot,” Eggert said. “That means late nights, weekend work, and an attitude of roll up your sleeves and getting it done.”
Eggert also pointed out that the other secret to Patriot’s success is the shared benefits of ownership that accrue to the U.S. and the 12 other Patriot partner nations. Under the partnership model, one nation may learn something during an exercise, or fund the development of an upgrade. These lessons learned then flow out across the entire partnership, and the improvements are made available to all partner nations.
This was a theme that was echoed by Mike Trotsky of Lockheed Martin, the company responsible which manufactures the PAC-3 MSE missile, the most advanced missile used by Patriot.
“Because of the close collaboration between LTPO, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and 12 nations, we have learned things on this program and made it a better, more capable system,” Trotsky said.
The continuous improvements to Patriot have made Patriot relevant today, and will continue to keep it relevant as the threat of drones, aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles continue to evolve. The Army intends to keep Patriot fielded through 2048…
