Patriot Missile

Patriot Missile. . Patriot is a long-range, all-altitude, all-weather surface-to-air missile, designed to replace the Nike Hercules and Improved Hawk. The entire Patriot system is the U.S. Army's most advanced air defense system. It is the only operational air defense system that can detect, target and shoot down attacking missiles or incoming aircraft., The missile displayed here is actually a SAM-D (Surface-to-Air Missile - Development), a name used until 1976 when it was renamed Patriot in honor of the U.S. Bicentennial. , Patriot is launched from a canister, powered by a single solid-fueled rocket motor and armed with a high-explosive blast-fragmentation warhead. The missile is inertially guided, using Track-Via-Missile (TVM) guidance, i.e. target tracking information is not received by the ground radar directly, but by the missile which transmits it to the ground control station. Because the missile is always nearer to the target than the ground radar, this method enhances accuracy and the ability to discriminate decoys from the real threat., Patriot planning originated in October 1964 as a defense against high performance aircraft. Development was slowed down by the requirement that SAM-D should use Track-Via-Missile (TVM) guidance. Full-scale development didn't start until January 1976, after TVM had been demonstrated in tests in 1975., Testing began at White Sands Missile Range in 1970. Since then, innumerable SAM-D and Patriot missiles have been tested here. In the early 1990s, Patriot was up-graded to intercept tactical ballistic missiles and became known as PAC-3 Patriot., Because the Patriot missile is delivered in a canister ready for launching, Army soldiers rarely see the actual missile inside. We are fortunate to have this one for display., Length: 17.5 feet (5.31 m) , Diameter: 16 inches (41 cm) , Weight: 2,000 pounds (900 kg) , Propellant: Solid , First Firing: 1970