The National Interest
The PATRIOT Missile Segment Enhancement improves fire-control, radar and target tracking for the weapon, which can destroy enemy drones, aircraft and Theater Ballistic Missiles.
The Army is advancing effort to upgrade the radar, fire control technology and flight software for its PATRIOT missile in order to sharpen its target tracking ability against approaching enemy attacks.
The Army has awarded a contract-extension with Lockheed Martin to further develop these technological advances for the weapon.
The $ 13.4 million modification includes engineering services for phased array tracking radar intercept on the PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) – also known as PAC-3 MSE.
“The PAC-3 MSE program includes flight software, flight testing, modification and qualification of subsystems, production planning and tooling, and support for full Patriot system integration,” according to Lockheed.
At the end of last year, the Army’s Patriot missile destroyed a mock-enemy theater ballistic missile target in a recent test-firing in order to demonstrate new guidance technology built into the weapon, Army officials said.
The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 is an advanced kinetic energy hit-to-kill interceptor surface-to-air missile designed to knock out incoming threats and protect ground forces, buildings and other assets. As a kinetic energy interceptor, the weapon relies upon the sheer force of impact to destroy approaching enemy attacks and does not need to use explosives – thus the “hit-to-kill” description.
The Patriot can be used for close-in threat approaching targets such as drones, cruise missiles and even enemy aircraft. At the same time, the missile can destroy longer-range theater ballistic missile targets as well, Army officials have explained.
The missile system also functions in tandem with the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense, THAAD, system to provide the U.S. with a “multi-tier theater defense.”
To intercept an incoming missile, it steers towards a predetermined intercept point chosen by its ground-based fire solution computer, selects the proper trajectory, and then applies a direct, body-to-body hit on the target.
In service since the early 80s, Patriot missiles have been upgraded several times, including this latest MSE software improvement. This test, which took place in December of last year, was engineered to asses an even newer target-tracking technology called Post Deployment Build, or PDB-8, service officials explained…
