Improved Patriot Missile System Ready
W I T H T H E 3 2 N D A R M Y A I R M I S S I L E D E F E N S E, March 18 -- In 1991, during the early days of Operation Desert Storm, President George H.W. Bush stood before a group of workers at the Raytheon plant and heralded the success of the U.S. military's new air missile-defense system. "Forty-two Scuds engaged, 41 intercepted. Thank God for the Patriot missile," he declared to the men and women who manufactured the missiles.
Almost exactly a decade later, in the final days of the Clinton administration, then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen frankly admitted that in fact "the Patriot didn't work." Between these two evaluations is a storm of controversy over the effectiveness of the Patriot missile system.
The military and Raytheon, the missile's Massachusetts-based manufacturer, officially set the Patriot's success rate at 70 percent for Scuds launched at Saudi Arabia and 40 percent for those launched at Israel.
However, the Israelis say that no more than 2 percent of the Scuds launched at their country were intercepted, and the General Accounting Office, which conducted its own study, estimates overall effectiveness at 9 percent.
Today in Kuwait, air defense batteries dot the northern desert, complete with what military and Raytheon officials say are more accurate and efficient Patriot systems.
New ‘Hit-to-Kill’ Technology
Unlike the first generation of missiles, which could only explode near their target and send it off course, the latest Patriot, the PAC-3, makes a direct and destructive hit. According to one battery commander, Capt. Eric Everts, this eliminates the greatest problem that the nascent system had in 1991.
"If it throws [a missile] off target there's a possibility that the warhead, whether it's conventional or holds weapons of mass destruction, it will still hit the ground and disperse somewhere," the commander told ABCNEWS in an interview at his battery near the Iraqi border.
In addition to the new "hit-to-kill" technology, the PAC-3 is lighter and narrower than its older brother, the PAC-2. One launcher capable of holding four PAC-2 missiles can hold up to 16 PAC-3 missiles.
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