The Patriot Weapon System is seeing a resurgence in procurement and production and the system that was first fielded to U.S. forces in the 1980s is seeing modernization take a prominent prominent role, focused on efficiency and cost, a Raytheon [RTN] official said.
“The modernization is a continuation of taking what’s the best and making it better,” said Tim Glaeser, vice president Integrated Air and Missile Defense Patriot Programs, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. It’s an iterative ongoing process since the system was first fielded and will continue likely out to 2040 and beyond to ensure it stays ahead of the emerging threats.
Raytheon is the prime contractor for Patriot and the systems integrator for PAC-3, which includes a Lockheed Martin [LMT] missile.
The resurgence of Patriot internationally has brought partners to the decision to upgrade existing systems, buy new fire units or, for the first time, purchase Patriot, he said. For example, the United Arab Emirates has bought fire units, joining the Patriot family. Taiwan plans to upgrade systems it has and buy more, and Saudi Arabia plans to modernize all its fire units.
“Kuwait we hope to be under contract by the end of the year and there are ongoing discussions with Turkey, Qatar and Poland as we speak, and there’s some interest by India,” Glaeser said. “The future is really bright.”
When demand is high, there’s the opportunity to improve the product, he said. The Army, industry and international partners are all now in agreement on the modernization path.
On engineering services contracts, all the existing Patriot partners meet on an annual basis and decide and prioritize which technology they’d like to mature and insert in the weapon system, Glaeser said. “The costs are shared among partners on a pro-rata basis. Once the design is complete, each country decides if it wants it for some, all or none of its units.”
This is cost effective and efficient and keeps modernization focused on priorities.
“Clearly if the threat is not doing a whole lot, the government is apt to follow suit, and hedge its bets,” he said. Eventually there’s too much operational risk, “so it’s important at least in the design phase to stay ahead of the emerging threat.”
For example, the Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) was to go on the MEADS system. Raytheon was awarded the contract to work integration into modified Patriot launchers, and demonstrate and test MSE effector fire from Patriot systems. To date, there have been five successful flight tests, and it has been proven that it can be integrated into the system, he said. “The new effector MSE flies a little higher and faster to get at some of these emerging threats.”
The GEM-T missile proved it could negate and kill ballistic missile threats. The Army and international partners invested in the missile and now possess thousands of them, and it is still available today, he said.
“Raytheon is upgrading the fleet with recertification and the Army is making a final decision for a second recertification that would give them another 20 years of shelf life,” Glaeser said.
With the resurgence of Patriot, nations are buying Patriot and are buying new GEM-T missiles, he said. “We still have hot production for them today.”
Raytheon has invested a lot of company money in improving manufacturing, bringing on international global suppliers and employees to run state-of-the-art facilities, he said.
For example, Raytheon has invested in a zero-gravity spot welder that floats in the air allowing operators to safely execute 200,000 spot welds without a single fault, Glaeser said. Compare that to an arc welder leaning over a bench, he added.
New state-of-the-art machines in Raytheon’s Andover, Mass., factory are making parts lighter, stronger and longer-lasting. Miniature components have replaced racks of equipment, creating plenty of room to add future capabilities. Also, touchscreens have replaced control panels.
On the Patriot system, improvements have been made in the antenna array.
“We’ve now driven cost out by 300 percent, so now we take the old antenna element out and recycle it and put in a brand new antenna element,” he said. They no longer have to be shipped for repair and returned.
In the radar, five circuit cards now do more work and have more capability than 435 circuit cards.
Another radar improvement is the Radar Digital Processor that moves the system from analogue to digital, eliminating 19 racks of equipment and circuit cards from the back of the radar. The new processor allows the radar to discriminate and see smaller threats farther out, taking full advantage of the MSE missile integrated into the system, improving the kill capability by improving the system’s “eyes.” The new processor frees up space, offering options for new equipment or reducing the size of the shelter, for example.
A future modernization effort will be to replace the antenna with some of the AESA technology. The Army has a Request for Information out now, Glaeser said, and industry is responding on how best to upgrade the front end of the radar.
“There’s clearly a defined robust modernization path for all integrated air and missile defense that is affordable, is improving reliability and improving the capability to ensure we stay ahead of emerging threats,” Glaeser said. “We’re working hard with the U.S. Army to define what future capabilities need to be added.”