Download or read book The Patriot PAC-3 Missile Program - An Affordable Integration Approach written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The affordable PAC-3 system upgrade approach is based on innovative, joint consolidation and integration of existing industry and government assets. Through the integrated use of a network of geographically dispersed simulation, hardware in the loop, and test facilities, the PAC-3 missile design and performance is being analyzed and verified prior to first missile flight. This process begins with the thorough and rigorous testing of missile components. It then continues with the use of integrated simulations which is a key activity to verify and predict PATRIOT system performance with PAC-3 upgrades. The process is culminated with system level and flight testing conducted at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. During the Gulf War, the PATRIOT air defense system made its now-famous battlefield debut against Tactical Ballistic Missiles (TBMs). Through a succession of improvements and modifications to refocus its mission on missile defense, PATRIOT helped defend coalition forces and Israeli territory from Iraqi Scud missile attacks. Despite this success, we realized that we needed to improve lethality (ability to destroy hard TBM warheads), radar detection range, defended area (footprint) and automatic recording of battle data. Improvements to the Engagement Control Station (ECS), radar, missile and launcher were planned to counter the TBM threat. Not only would a new state of the art Hit to Kill (HTK) technology advanced missile need to be developed, but it needed to be quickly and affordably integrated into the existing PATRIOT system.