The older munition for the Patriot is called a PAC-2, and an upgraded interceptor missile is called a PAC-3.
Clarification, because journalists seem to have a comical level of difficulty getting the nuances of a lot of military hardware right:
There are actually quite a few missile and launch system variants, and “higher number” doesn’t necessarily mean “better”, nor “lower number” “worse”.
- PAC-2 has a longer range than PAC-3, and also has a ~10x larger warhead, despite being “less PAC”.
- PAC-3 has ABM capability
- Patriot launchers can mount 4 “units”, where a “unit” is a single PAC-2 cell, or 2-4 PAC-3 cells.
- It is also possible to mix-and-match 2/3, including subvariants thereof, so a single battery can use the most appropriate missile for the threat it’s trying to kill (for instance, a PAC-3 for ballistic threats, vs a PAC-2 for a Tu-95 or MiG-31).
Sometimes less PAC is more smack.
Does the PAC specification refer exclusively to missiles? Are there no support vehicle (battalion?) additions (newer/different radar system, integration with external data streams) to enable the ABM capability of PAC-3?
I (incorrectly) thought PAC-3 wasn’t a mere missile.
Is there a better source on Patriot specification beyond the wikipedia article (which is pretty extensive to start with)?
AFAIK, “Patriot” is a broad-brush term for the holistic system, similar to AEGIS.
“PAC” does refer exclusively to the missiles themselves, iirc.
The wiki article actually goes into some detail about the different ground units and modules that are used with a battery (some required, some optional/capability-add).
There’s also PAAC-4/SkyCeptor, but UA is (unfortunately) not getting those afaik
I see, cheers!
Rare Israel doing good thing?
I’m guessing Israel doing thing to keep ‘allies’ off it’s back about it’s genocide.
