The Patriot PAC-2 is the first missile from the Patriot family optimized to shoot down ballistic missiles with enough efficiency. Iraq launched a total of 83 ballistic missiles during the Gulf War, of which 45 were killed by the Patriots. It took 150 Patriots to achieve this efficiency, although it should be noted that the data of this campaign still classified.One of the main improvements was to change the size of the shrapnel from the missile’s warhead. Initially they weighed 2 grams, insufficient to produce the effective destruction of certain parts of their objectives, but after the improvement they became 45 grams, much more effective and lethal.Another important improvement was the response time of the fuze controlled by the Doppler pulse radar, which was redesigned for very high speed actions such as the interception of a ballistic missile. However, the PAC-2 maintains the ability to shoot down aircraft that gave it its previous algorithm.Patriot‘s use tactics consisted in the almost simultaneous launching of two missiles against the same target, but such tactics were not always effective. With the improvements of the PAC-2 variant It was decided that the missiles should be fired with an interval of 3 or 4 seconds, so the second missile could recognize the warhead of the ballistic missile after the first explosion.The AN/MPQ-65 Radar Set is responsible for the search, identification and monitoring of objectives and the launching of the missiles. It also has an IFF system, electronic counter-countermeasures systems and a track-via-missile (TVM) guidance subsystems that allows the combination of the semi active radar homing with radio command guidance.The range of the Patriot PAC-2 depends on the improvements made but it is between 96 and 160 km. The missile reaches a speed of Mach 4 and is packaged in a container that serves for transport and shooting. The launch trucks carry 4 missiles for immediate use.The Patriot PAC-2 is in service in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or Taiwan in different variants, both antiaircraft and anti-missile. Some of them were transferred from the German surplus to reduced maintenance cost.
