Patriot Missile Destroys Drone For Second Straight Hit

MISSILE DEFENSE

Image credit: U.S. Army

by Staff Writers
Tewksbury MA (SPX) Jun 20, 2006
Raytheon's Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile scored a second consecutive successful test flight as a GEM-T missile destroyed a surrogate cruise missile at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the company announced Monday.

The successful government test of the next evolution of the Patriot Advanced Configuration-2 GEM was the second of four development flight tests to be conducted by the Patriot Lower Tier Project Office using Raytheon's newly-developed Patriot system post-deployment build-6 software.

"This flight test builds on the success of the previous PAC-2 test, and the outstanding results validate we're on track to ensure the Patriot system remains an affordable, premier air defense solution for our warfighters," said Rick Yuse, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems vice president.

"As in the previous test, this equipment demonstrated the Configuration-3/PDB-6 system's capability to search, detect, track, classify, engage and eliminate the threat with no doubt mission assurance."

Three Patriot Configuration-3 fire units engaged a surrogate cruise missile flying at a low altitude simulating an attack on one of the Patriot fire units.

A GEM-T missile with improved capabilities was successfully launched from a local launcher and destroyed the target.

The capabilities incorporated into PDB-6 are the next step in the evolving growth for Patriot, Raytheon said in a news release. This update is composed of user-requested improvements, planned performance improvements, and improvements that had resulted out of lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Patriot Configuration-3 fire units, consisting of the Patriot launchers, engagement control stations and Patriot radar systems, provided the battle management, command, control and communications to ensure the Configuration-3 system achieved test objectives.

Test data indicated that seamless communication and data transfer between the Patriot radar, engagement control station, and Patriot launcher enabled the Patriot to destroy the target.

All tactical hardware for the missions was manned and operated by soldiers of the 1st of the 7th Air Defense Artillery Battalion, Fort Bliss, Texas.

Raytheon IDS is the prime contractor for the Patriot system and the system integrator for the Configuration-3 system that includes the GEM. As the system integrator, Raytheon IDS ensures that all Patriot system components provide the warfighter a reliable and lethal capability to defeat the threats in current and future combat environments.

The Patriot Air and Missile Defense System is a long-range, high-altitude, all-weather system designed to defeat advanced threats, including aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles.

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