Scale Military Modeller International – August 2019

T

he MIM-104 Patriot is a

surface-to-air missile (SAM)

system, which derives its

name from the radar

component of the weapon system. The AN/

MPQ-53 at the heart of the system is known

as the ‘Phased Array Tracking Radar to

Intercept on Target’ which is an acronym

for ‘PATRIOT’. The Patriot system gained

notoriety during the Persian Gulf War of

1991 with the claimed engagement of over

forty Iraqi Scud missiles, and those claims

became a source of controversy. The system

was successfully used against Iraqi missiles

in 2003 Iraq War, and has been also used

by Saudi and Emirati forces in the Yemen

conflict against Houthi missile attacks. The

Patriot system achieved its first undisputed

shootdowns of enemy aircraft in the service

of the Israeli Air Defence Command. Israeli

MIM-104D batteries shot down two Hamas

UAVs during Operation Protective Edge on

August 31, 2014 and later, on September 23,

2014, an Israeli Patriot battery shot down a

Syrian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 which had

penetrated Israeli airspace, achieving the first

shootdown of a manned enemy aircraft in the

world for the system

The AN/MPQ-53/65 Radar Set is a passive

electronically scanned array radar equipped

with IFF, electronic counter-countermeasure

(ECCM), and track-via-missile (TVM) guidance

subsystems. The AN/MPQ-53 Radar Set

supports PAC-2 units, while the AN/MPQ-65

Radar Set supports PAC-2 and PAC-3 units. The

main difference between these two radars is the

22 SCALE MILITARY MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

Scale Military Modellers

Tank World

The MIM-104

Patriot Missile System