25 Facts About MIM-104 Patriot

MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied states.

The Patriot system replaced the Nike Hercules system as the U S Army's primary High to Medium Air Defense system and replaced the MIM-23 Hawk system as the U S Army's medium tactical air defense system.

MIM-104 Patriot uses an advanced aerial interceptor missile and high-performance radar systems.

MIM-104 Patriot was developed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, which had previously developed the Safeguard ABM system and its component Spartan and hypersonic speed Sprint missiles.

The symbol for MIM-104 Patriot is a drawing of a Revolutionary War–era Minuteman.

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MIM-104 Patriot systems have been sold to the armed forces of the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Taiwan, Greece, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Romania and Sweden.

MIM-104 Patriot system gained prestige during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 with the claimed engagement of over 40 Iraqi Scud missiles.

The MIM-104 Patriot system achieved its first undisputed shootdowns of enemy aircraft in the service of the Israeli Air Defense Command.

The MIM-104 Patriot would combine several new technologies, including the MPQ-53 passive electronically scanned array radar and track-via-missile guidance.

MIM-104 Patriot was used initially as an anti-aircraft system, but during 1988, it was upgraded to provide limited capability against tactical ballistic missiles as PAC-1 .

MIM-104 Patriot system has four major operational functions: communications, command and control, radar surveillance, and missile guidance.

MIM-104 Patriot's radar is somewhat unusual in that it is a "detection-to-kill" system, meaning that a single unit performs all search, identification, track, and engagement functions.

Beam created by the MIM-104 Patriot's flat phased array radar is comparatively narrow and highly agile compared to that of a moving dish.

The power and agility of MIM-104 Patriot's radar is highly resistant to countermeasures, including ECM, radar jamming and use of RWR equipment.

MIM-104 Patriot is capable of quickly changing frequencies to resist jamming.

MIM-104 Patriot missiles are referred to as "certified rounds" as they leave the factory, and additional maintenance is not necessary on the missile prior to it being launched.

MIM-104 Patriot Advanced Capability, known today as the PAC-1 upgrade, was a software-only upgrade.

For Configuration 3 units, the MIM-104 Patriot radar was completely redesigned, adding another traveling wave tube that increased the radar's search, detection, tracking, and discrimination abilities.

The MIM-104 Patriot battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and can include as many as 600 soldiers.

MIM-104 Patriot battalions prefer to operate in a centralized fashion, with the ICC controlling the launches of all of its subordinate launching batteries through the secure UHF PADIL communications network.

Therefore, MIM-104 Patriot crews recorded each launch on standard-definition videotape, which was insufficient for detailed analysis.

MIM-104 Patriot was designed with proximity fused warheads, which are designed to explode immediately prior to hitting a target spraying shrapnel out in a fan in front of the missile, either destroying or disabling the target.

MIM-104 Patriot was deployed to Iraq a second time in 2003, this time to provide air and missile defense for the forces conducting Operation Iraqi Freedom .

However missile experts via news agencies cast doubt of the effectiveness of the Saudi Arabian MIM-104 Patriot defense, according to the videos; one interceptor explodes just after launch and another does a "U turn" midair toward Riyadh.

On 27 February 2021, a MIM-104 Patriot battery intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthis over Riyadh, as a Formula E race was being held on the outskirts of the city in Diriyah.

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