The US government recently approved a sale of 100 million USD worth equipment to maintain and improve the Taiwan Patriot Missile Defence System. This will upgrade the system. This decision was made during Trump administration in 2019. US does not have official relations with Taiwan. However, US is one of the biggest backeras. In December 2021, China warned the US that the countries will end up in a military conflict if US is encouraging Taiwan independence.

Patriot Missile

It is a surface to air missile. It is manufactured by the US defence private contractor Raytheon. The Patriot missiles were replacements to Nike Hercules system. Its operational range is around 70 kilometer.

Patriot Missile – Phased Array tracking radar

This radar is electronically controlled radar. It creates a beam of radio waves. And the waves can be pointed to different directions without moving the antennas.

Patriot – Anti ballistic missile

These missiles counter ballistic missiles. The ballistic missiles are those missiles that follow a ballistic trajectory. Here the missile follows a curved path, like a parabola. On the other hand, the inter – continental missiles are launched as sub orbital trajectory. In a sub – orbital trajectory, the missile reaches outer space. But it does not gain escape velocity as that of the rockets.

Patriot Missile – Wars

These missiles were used by the US military in Persian Gulf War, Iraq war, 2014 Israel – Gaza conflict, Syrian civil war, Yemen civil war, Saudi Arabian led intervention in Yemen, Saudi Arabian – Yemeni border conflict.

Key Facts of Patriot Missile

The cost of one patriot missile is around 3 million USD. Currenlty, around 1,106 of these missiles are in service in US military. 172 patriot missiles have been exported so far.

Countries with Patriot missiles

The countries that have acquired patriot missiles are South Korea, UAE, Greece, Spain, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Romania, Qatar.

By: Brijesh Kumar