Patriot, the workhorse of the Pentagon’s missile defense system, to get an upgrade - The Washington Post: It’s usually the missile that gets all the the attention. The deadly rocket that screams through the sky to take out another missile, sometimes traveling far faster than the speed of sound, in what’s often likened to a bullet hitting a bullet.
But perhaps the most important part of the Patriot missile system isn’t the missile. It’s the radar.
That’s the part that first detects the incoming threat. Sometimes it’s an enemy plane, or a drone. Sometimes it’s another missile moving at a mile a second, which makes every second count. The more time to counterattack, the safer you are.
Raytheon, which makes the Patriot, recently announced a significant upgrade to the radar, which the company says will allow it to have a 360-degree view of the battlefield and also see them at greater distances. The company has invested $150 million over the past 15 years in the technology, it said.
