Engaged in a long-running standoff with North Korea over its ballistic missile program, the United States has tested an upgraded version of the Patriot missile system, which it says would help protect US allies against a wider range of threats.
The new missile, complete with next-generation radars, electronics, software and fire control technologies was tested recently by the US Army, Brigadier General Robert Rasch, Deputy Program Executive Officer, Missiles and Space, told Warrior in an interview published on Tuesday.
“This enables us to reach higher altitudes and increase range,” said Rasch. “Our Patriot modernization effort reduces the size of the hardware on the weapon and gets the latest RAM (Reliability, Availability and Maintainability), faster processing speed, smaller motherboards and improved command and control.”
In service since 1981, the missile system has undergone numerous upgrades aimed at keeping it effective against…