ILA 2012: Raytheon continues Patriot overtures to German government

Raytheon has held "congenial" talks with the German government in recent days with regard to its offer to provide its upgraded Patriot air-defence system in place of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), a company official told IHS Jane's on 12 September.

Speaking at the ILA Airshow in Berlin, William Blake, Director Integrated Air and Missile Defense, said that Raytheon "is continuing to make the German government aware of opportunities that exist [to upgrade its existing Patriot systems]".

Raytheon has been making overtures to Berlin for a couple of years, but the recent decision by the US government to effectively end its participation in the tri-national MEADS programme once the current capability demonstration phase ends at the beginning of 2014 has given added impetus to the company's efforts.

"We made an unsolicited offer [to the German government] in February 2010 to upgrade the existing Patriot systems to 'Configuration 3+' [the most up-to-date baseline] and to integrate IRIS-T and any other MEADS capabilities that they want," Blake said. Indeed, the Patriot system has already successfully engaged a test target with the MEADS MSE missile.

Specifically, Raytheon is offering Germany an upgrade package for its existing Patriot fire units (FUs) that will see it achieve a near-MEADS capability.