Patriot Missiles and F-35s shore up NATO’s Eastern Flank

The Pentagon’s move to place Patriot interceptor missiles in Poland is both significant and impactful, recognizing of that DoD officials emphasize the weapons are being sent for purely defensive purposes.

Patriot Missiles

Made famous years ago with an ability to intercept Saddam Hussein’s Scud missile attacks during the Gulf War, the Patriot missile has been substantially modernized over the years and functioned as a foundational element of US ballistic missile defense.

Russia continues to use short and intermediate range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and other longer-range projectiles in what appear to be deliberate attacks on children and civilians. Therefore, if the US is providing Javelin anti-tank missiles and a range of other weapons in coordination with NATO allies, it seems Patriots could reinforce security on its Eastern flank.

As circumstances in Ukraine continue to intensify, and attacks strike closer to the Polish border, it makes strategic sense to place Patriot batteries in Poland given the weapon’s increased ability to track and intercept incoming ballistic missiles. Certainly the Russian use of medium range cruise missiles, rockets and short and intermediate range ballistic missiles place Poland within striking distance given that some of the weapons can travel hundreds of miles.

“I won’t speak for Poland, and that government. But for our purposes, the military capabilities that we are adding to NATO’s eastern flank are designed to protect and defend and deter against attacks on NATO territory that includes NATO airspace,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters, according to a Pentagon transcript.

The particular configuration of the Patriots sent to Poland may not be known, yet the most modern variants are greatly upgraded Patriot Advanced Capability – 3 kinetic energy hit-to-kill missiles. 

Years ago, the weapons were integrated with new guidance and targeting oriented software upgrades called MSE, for Missile Segment Enhancement. More recently, the Patriot radar has been increasingly networked as part of a meshed system of interconnected air defense nodes. These enhancements to the Patriot have been fortified by greatly improved tracking and targeting capability, to include an ability to destroy high-speed, maneuvering cruise missiles following a different trajectory than standard ballistic missiles which follow a parabola-like trajectory.

As far back as several years ago, Patriot interceptors hit and destroyed a maneuvering, high-speed cruise missile during a live-fire test.