Upgraded Patriot Missile Headed to Middle East Could Destroy Iranian Cruise Missiles

by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

The Pentagon is moving quickly to send several kinds of upgraded missile defense systems to the Middle East to protect Israel and US forces in the region, a clear sign of growing escalation in the region related to the ongoing Hamas-Israeli war, Hezbollah threats and of course Iran and its proxy forces.

The situation is growing much more dire and serious, according to US Defense Secretary Austin to specifically cited escalating threats from Iran. Therefore, along with a critical move to send a second Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Pentagon is strengthening its missile defense posture in the region by sending Patriot Missile Batteries as well as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapons to vital parts of the Middle East.

While the Patriot of the Gulf War era proved capable of knocking out SCUDs, and the weapon has shown capable of destroying multiple kinds of ballistic missiles, today’s Patriot is arguably positioned to counter Iran’s dangerous arsenal of cruise missiles. An interesting analysis on Iran Watch cites what it terms “deployed” and “possibly deployed” cruise missiles of various ranges. The longest range Cruise Missile cited in the analysis is the now-deployed Paveh LACM capable of traveling up to 1,600km, yet Iran Watch also specifies two newer “possibly deployed” cruise missiles with “unkown” ranges called the Meshkat/Soumar (Kh-55) and the Hoveizeh.  Parts of Western Iran, given this weapons range, would be capable of targeting Israel, and of course Iranian proxies can likely fire them from much closer ranges as well. This places Israel and US forces at risk in the region to a very high degree, although the kind of guidance and target tracking technologies built into Iran’s cruise missiles may not be fully known. 

Modern Patriot Could Stop Iranian Cruise missiles

While dispersed yet long-range precision interceptors could make a large difference when it comes to defending Israel and US allies from Hamas or Iranian rockets, the decision to send the Patriot seems to indicate the Pentagon’s growing confidence in its upgraded performance capabilities. While first emerging more than 30-years ago as a “Scud Killer” during the Persian Gulf War, today’s patriot is almost and entirely different weapon due to advanced fire control, paradigm-changing guidance technology and expansive multi-node, target-tracking networking.

It may not yet be clear which exact variant of the Patriot the Pentagon is sending, although many are likely to be the Patriot Advanced Capability -3, a kinetic energy interceptor engineered to track and destroy incoming enemy ballistic missiles. In recent years, however, the Patriot missile has received a series of paradigm-changing upgrades which now enable the interceptor to track and destroy two maneuvering cruise missiles. This ability is a massive change for the weapon, which was upgraded with software adaptations years ago through an effort called Missile System Enhancement (MSE). While this upgrade improved performance parameters in a substantial way in terms of explosive power, range and guidance .. the largest breakthrough with Patriot was demonstrated as recently as 2020 by Army Futures Command.