Raytheon to provide Patriot missile systems and sophisticated fire-control radar to Poland
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – Guided missile experts at the Raytheon Co. will provide Patriot surface-to-air missile systems for the government of Poland under terms of a $1.5 billion order announced Tuesday.
Officials of the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., are asking the Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems segment in Andover, Mass., to provide Poland with Patriot missile systems under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
Patriot uses the Raytheon AN/MPQ-53 phased-array radar for high- to medium-altitude air defense against enemy aircraft and ballistic missiles.
The Patriot system has four major functions: communications, command and control, radar surveillance, and missile guidance. The fire-control section consists of the AN/MPQ-53 or -65 radar set, the AN/MSQ-104 engagement control station, the OE-349 antenna mast group, and the EPP-III electric power plant. Its M901 launching station can carry as many as four PAC-2 missiles or as many as 16 PAC-3 missiles.
Related: Army seeks to upgrade or replace Patriot missile-defense radar system
The AN/MPQ-53/65 radar set is a passive electronically scanned array radar equipped with identification friend or foe (IFF), electronic counter-countermeasure, and track-via-missile guidance subsystems. The AN/MPQ-53 radar supports PAC-2 units, while the AN/MPQ-65 radar supports PAC-2 and PAC-3 units.
The AN/MPQ-65 has a second traveling wave tube for increased search, detection, and tracking. The radar's antenna has more than 5,000 elements for tracking, IFF, and noise cancelling.
The AN/MSQ-104 engagement control station uses a truck-mounted shelter with radio communications, weapons-control computer, data link terminal, the UHF communications array, routing logic radio interface unit, and man-machine interface.
The weapons-control computer is a 24-bit parallel militarized multiprocessing computer with fixed- and floating-point capability that controls the operator interface, calculates missile intercept algorithms, and provides limited fault diagnostics.
Related: Raytheon to provide encryption and cyber security upgrades for Patriot missile system
The data link terminal connects the weapons-control computer to Patriot launching stations. It uses either a SINCGARS radio or fiber optic cables to transmit encrypted data to the missile launchers. Patriot's The UHF communications array communications with other Patriot batteries nearby.
Patriot has received many upgrades over its lifetime, including new digital processors and active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. Future upgrades will enable the Patriot missile to discriminate between targets; new fin design; and a more powerful rocket engine.
The latest Patriot PAC-3 missile has a Ka band active radar seeker, and fits four missiles to each launcher canister. It has 180 tiny pulse solid propellant rocket motors mounted in the forebody to maneuver the missile, as well as a Ka band active radar seeker to enable the missile to acquire its target in terminal phase.
Related: Raytheon unveils major enhancements to Patriot missile command and control capability
Patriot operators include the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Taiwan, Greece, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Romania, South Korea, and Jordan.
Raytheon will transfer Patriot technology as permitted by U.S. law. Then it will work with Polish defense companies as they learn to build key parts of one of the Patriot system.
On this order Raytheon will do the work in Andover, Mass.; White Sands Missile Range, N.M.; and Merrimack, N.H., and should be finished by December 2022. For more information contact Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems online at www.raytheon.com, or the Army Contracting Command-Redstone at http://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-rsa.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
