1. Patriot Missiles Michael Beattie

2. Overview  Sophisticated guided missile  Designed to detect, target, and hit an incoming missile  Depends on ground-based radar

3. Overview  Batteries consist of 5 components:  Missiles  Missile launcher  Radar antenna  Equipment van (Engagement Control Station-ECS)  Power plant truck

4. The Missiles  Patriot missile currently comes in 2 forms:  Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-2  PAC-3 (Deployed in 2002)

5. 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

6. The Missiles

7.  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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. The Launcher

12. The Radar  Scan skies for incoming targets  Detect a potential target  Determine trajectory, speed and heading

13. The Radar  Provide information to identify target  Track Patriot missiles after launch  Illuminate the target

14. 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

15. The Radar

16. 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

17. The ECS

18. 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

19. 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

20. Criticism  After Gulf War, scientists and Clinton Administration contended system didn’t work  Performance discrepancies impossible to reconcile because of inconsistent record keeping by army  Fewer than half of 50 Patriot systems upgraded months before war