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Raytheon Patriot Takes Out A Target Missile

By Staff Writer | June 26, 2006

      A Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile (GEM) destroyed a target missile at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., according to the GEM maker, Raytheon [RTN].

      It was the second consecutive test flight success for a GEM-T missile, taking down a surrogate cruise missile, according to Raytheon.

      Successful government testing of the next evolution of the Patriot Advanced Configuration-2 (PAC-2) GEM missile 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 (PDB-6) software.

      In the test last month, three Patriot Configuration-3 fire units in a battalion configuration using PDB-6 software engaged a surrogate cruise missile flying at a low altitude. The cruise missile simulated an attack on one of the Patriot fire units, according to Raytheon.

      A GEM-T missile with improved capabilities was fired from a local launcher and destroyed the target, the company stated.

      “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, vice president with the Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems unit Integrated Air Defense.

      “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,” Yuse said.

      Capabilities incorporated into PDB-6 are the next step in the evolving growth for Patriot. This update includes 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 missile to destroy the target.