Patriot is an American air defense system that operates with a battery of medium-range surface-to-air missiles. It can defend the equivalent of a large city, but not an entire country. VIDEOGRAPHIC
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00:00 Patriot is an American air defense system that operates with a battery of medium range
00:12 surface to air missiles.
00:16 It is renowned for its fast response time, ability to aim at several targets at once,
00:22 ease of movement, and resistance to electronic jamming.
00:28 Each Patriot battery typically includes an engagement control station, a radar set to
00:33 detect enemy targets within a 150 km area, detection and jamming antenna, and several
00:40 launch stations.
00:42 All of these elements are mounted on trucks.
00:45 Each launcher can hold four PAK-2 aerial interceptor missiles.
00:50 They detonate close to the attacking missile, which is destroyed by their fragmentation
00:54 warhead.
00:56 The launchers can also accommodate 12-16 new generation PAK-3 interceptors.
01:03 These are more precise due to a new interceptor with hit-to-kill technology, which would destroy
01:08 targets by striking them directly.
01:13 The size of the defense area depends on many parameters, including target type, speed,
01:19 and altitude.
01:22 At most, one Patriot battery can defend the equivalent of a large city, but not an entire
01:27 country.
01:31 The Patriot defense system is useful against short-range ballistic missiles, but is less
01:38 effective against low-flying missiles and drone strikes.
01:44 Each interceptor missile costs around $4 million, and a complete battery is more than $1 billion.
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