Not sure that will do that much unless they have improved the system!
The World's 'Indispensable Air and Missile Defense System'
If the United States is, as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recently declared, the world's "indispensable nation," than Patriot is the world's "indispensable air and missile defense system." Effective against fixed-wing aircraft and cruise missiles, Patriot is the only currently fielded system capable of intercepting and destroying tactical ballistic missiles in flight. Since tactical ballistic missiles offer rogue states such as Iraq the best, perhaps the only, reliable method of delivering biological, chemical or nuclear warheads, Patriot has become an international symbol of security, the last line of defense against weapons of mass destruction.
ADA soldiers bound for Southwest Asia and Operation Desert Thunder eagerly pointed out to inquiring reporters that today's Patriot system is a much more capable system than the Patriot systems that successfully engage Iraqi Scuds during the Gulf War. Since the United States deployed Patriot to defend Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey against Iraq in Operation Desert Storm, a series of major product improvements labeled Patriot Advanced Capabilities-3 (PAC-3) have steadily increased Patriot's lethality, versatility and agility.
The Enhancements
Responding quickly to the Persian Gulf crisis in late 1990, Raytheon manufactured, assembled, and shipped more than 500 PAC-2 Patriot missiles to the war zone within a matter of weeks. Once deployed, Patriot not only played a significant role in the conflict, it also produced an extraordinary amount of real-time operational data. This information enabled the US. Army, the system's primary user, and Raytheon, the prime contractor, to implement significant improvements.
The Primary Upgrades
A Quick Reaction Program (QRP) has provided enhanced radar sensitivity, an increase in the defended area's footprint, additional radar changes to produce better target readings, and hardware and software modifications that allow the launchers to be positioned a considerable distance from the radar.
These modifications include:
Radar Sensitivity: The system can now detect tactical ballistic missiles earlier in flight, providing more time for the Patriot missile to reach its intercept point. This capability increases the protected area.
Launcher Deployment: System software modifications allow for the placement of launchers a significant distance from the radar. This upgrade facilitates deployment in dense urban areas and expands the area defended by the Patriot fire unit.
Radar Antenna Protection: Extraneous signals from nearby buildings and large aircraft have been reduced through the use of a shroud around the rear of the radar antenna and a reduction in the sidelobes of the radar beam. This eliminates the possibility of false target indications which can decrease the efficiency of the radar by wasting its time evaluating spurious target signals.
A North Finding Module and Global Positioning System: These features allow for rapid automatic alignment of launchers and radar. These functions previously were performed manually, and were both time consuming and labor intensive.
Guidance Enhancement Missile (GEM)
The GEM modification represents a simple upgrade, retrofitable into existing missiles, to enhance the system's capabilities against the class of missiles employed by Iraq in Desert Storm. Coupled with the QRP initiatives, this effort broadens the defense of a single area four times over. Another improvement has resulted in a faster fuze, which increases missile lethality at higher closing velocities by ensuring that warhead detonation occurs at the optimum time to destroy the target warhead, and not just the target missile.
Other Upgrades
PAC-3 Radar: The new radar will double the average power of its predecessor, improve the system's multifunctionality, and support expanded search sectors and new discrimination functions.
Discriminating Processing: This improvement leads to accurate in-flight data related to targets under scrutiny. This means the system can determine target characteristics, including velocity and reentry deceleration. This information permits automatic discrimination between tankage, decoys, and warheads, directing the missile to engage the threatening object: the warhead.
Patriot's History
Patriot began life in the late 1960s as an anti-aircraft missile system. In 1967, Raytheon won the first contract to develop and later produce the system -- initially dubbed SAM-D (Surface-to-Air Missile Development) and, in the bicentennial year 1976, renamed Patriot.
The development phase extended through 1980, when the U.S. Army assigned Raytheon to produce the first five fire units and 155 missiles. The Army activated the first U.S. Patriot missile battalion in 1982. Three years later, a Patriot unit was deployed to Germany to protect NATO forces from hostile aircraft. Today the system remains the cornerstone of the U.S. Army and European Contingency Force integrated air defense system.
In 1988, Raytheon fielded the first anti-tactical missile variant of the original Patriot system to counter short-range Warsaw Pact missiles. This version was called PAC-1 (for Patriot Advanced Capability). The PAC-2 version subsequently upgraded the system to protect against tactical ballistic missiles over a small area near a Patriot battery. This version was not intended to defend country or city-sized areas.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, there were only three PAC-2 test missiles in existence. Raytheon employees worked for months around the clock, including weekends and holidays, to deliver an inventory of more than 500 missiles before hostilities began in January 1991. Deployed against Iraqi SCUDS in early 1991, Patriot captured immediate worldwide attention and produced significant strategic and tactical results. Patriot's presence helped dissuade Israel from assuming an aggressive role in the conflict. The system enjoyed unusual success against the idiosyncratic SCUDS, which broke up in flight and presented multiple targets on almost every occasion. This phenomenon is one of the issues resolved by the upgrade program.
Summing Up
Raytheon has delivered more than 150 Patriot fire units and more than 7,000 missiles to the U.S. Army and U.S. allies, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, Japan, and The Netherlands. Deliveries to Kuwait are scheduled to begin in early 1995. A modified air defense system based on Patriot was also sold recently to Taiwan.
The improved Patriot system will:
defend an area considerably larger than it protected during the Gulf War;
intercept tactical ballistic missiles at higher altitude than those engaged in Desert Storm;
engage and destroy modern, low-flying cruise missiles;
remain effective in the face of all known electronic countermeasures;
more effectively discriminate fragments and decoys from missile warhead sections;
utilize these improved capabilities with minimal impact on training and logistics.
Patriot soldiers match the excellence of their weapon systems. The routine rotation of Patriot task forces to Southwest Asia since the end of the Gulf War in 1991 has made the Patriot air and missile defense force one of the Army's best trained and best prepared combat components.