Patriot Can Destroy Maneuvering Cruise Missiles – Save Ukrainian Civilians From Russian Attacks

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) It may have first been famous as a SCUD-killing interceptor during the Gulf War in the early 90s. Yet, the Army’s Patriot missile continues to outlive and exceed its initial expectations by not only proving relevant in a modern warfare environment but also achieving breakthroughs typically associated with new innovations.

The 1980s weapon, developed as part of the Big 5, stunned the world with its ability to knock Saddam Hussein’s SCUDs straight out of the sky with a precision intercept. Yet at this time, few would have imagined such a system would be capable of tracking and intercepting two maneuvering cruise missiles at once. By extension, today’s Patriots in Ukraine are capable of tracking and destroying incoming Russian cruise missiles.

Years ago, the Patriot Advanced Capability – 3, PAC-3, became famous as a “hit-to-kill” kinetic energy interceptor, which demonstrated performance capacities beyond those exhibited during the Gulf War. Some of the initial breakthroughs with Patriot modernization related to range and guidance precision, complemented by increasingly accurate and sensitive radar.

Upgrades for Advanced Patriots

Examining the Patriot’s technological maturation over a period of decades, one might be inclined to think of the weapon as an optimal example of how effective weapons modernization can unfold. The Patriot is an Army modernization success story, as the weapon has been continuously adjusted, adapted, and upgraded to keep pace with new threats.

This is precisely the Army’s intention, according to its Air and Missile Defense 2028 Vision document. The forecast specifies some of the more challenging specifics associated with newly emerging drone, helicopter, aircraft, and ballistic missile threats. For instance, regarding ballistic missile threats, the Army Vision report explains that advanced weapons are now engineered with “countermeasures, maneuverable re-entry vehicles, multiple independent reentry vehicles, hypersonic/supersonic glide vehicles and electronic attack.”

In keeping with this vision, throughout several decades, the Patriot has steadily increased in performance through a series of paradigm-changing breakthroughs over the years. One major upgrade was called the Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) upgrade, which integrated new software into the weapon to improve target tracking, radar sensitivity, and image fidelity, as well as to develop the ability to track multiple targets simultaneously.