New Patriot baseline passes testing

The US Army and Raytheon have successfully completed the first end-to-end testing of a complete new-production standard Patriot package in over a decade.

Tim Glaeser, vice-president for business development at Raytheon's Integrated Air and Missile Defence business, told IHS Jane's that this latest test firing – conducted on 21 March, but embargoed until 26 March – was "the first to involve new ground-up production hardware and is the first test we've conducted with more than one Patriot new-build fire unit together. We had a simulated 'Battalion minus' configuration."

This new production standard essentially embodies a raft of improvements that have been developed for retrofit upgrade of legacy systems and to modernise the system for new customers, in a new-build package of equipment.