On May 16, 2023, according to the video streaming from social media, a Patriot air defense missile position in Ukraine was attacked by Russian missiles. Ukrainian soldiers fired at least 30 missiles to intercept incoming missiles, and the effect was similar to that of rocket launchers, and they also intercepted them with near anti-aircraft guns. However, in the end, the position exploded and may be hit by Russian missiles. Then Patriot missiles began to deviate from the track and hit nearby buildings. This scene is as wonderful as a big movie. Later, the Patriot missile that crashed on the street appeared on the Internet. It can be seen from the appearance that it is a PAC-3CRI interceptor, which confirms that Ukraine has acquired the advanced Patriot PAC-3 missile. You know, in fiscal year 2024, the cost of each PAC-3 missile was about $5.275 million, and missiles worth $654.38+0.5825 million were launched in about two minutes. Even at the price of 30-40 million cheap versions, it sold $654.38 billion. The Ukrainians were really defeated.
PAC-3 is actually the abbreviation of Patriot Advanced Capability -3 missile system. He is an air defense system based on Patriot PAC-2 system, improved the fire control system and replaced it with a new PAC-3 missile. It is a low-level defense system in the American anti-missile system. A fire unit/missile company of Patriot PAC-3 system is equipped with AN/MPQ-53/AN/MPQ-65 radar, AN/MSQ-1 04/AN/MSQ-1 32 battle control platform1,OE-349 antenna car/KLOC. A typical PAC-3 missile battalion consists of 4-6 firepower units, as well as an information coordination center, tactical command system, communication transmission device, etc.
An /MPQ-65 passive electronic scanning phased array radar equipped with PAC-3 missile is an upgraded version of An /MPQ-53. It uses C-band frequency, dual TWT unit and new RF oscillator to improve performance. With an average power of 20 kW, it can track at most 100 targets at a time and detect ballistic missile targets at 150 km. The baseline function has been enhanced to better deal with developing threats, such as mobile ballistic missiles, stealth cruise missiles and aircraft. An /MSQ- 104 combat control platform is the command and control node at the firepower unit level, which is responsible for solving the trajectory, controlling the launch sequence and communicating with the launcher and other firepower units. Now it has been upgraded to AN/MSQ- 132, and the internal operation interface has been upgraded accordingly. The original monochrome CRT display has been replaced by a 30-inch (760 mm) color touch screen LCD display. It is worth noting that Ukrainians have shown large color touch screens before and confirmed that they are indeed equipped with PAC-3 missiles.
This system is far away from the battlefield, and it is difficult to destroy the whole system with a single conventional warhead of a missile or drone outside the defense zone, but it is still possible to destroy part of it as long as the position of the system is found. Generally speaking, patriots will be arranged in the back, and it is difficult to reach cover weapons such as rockets, so they can only rely on long-range missiles. This is not good news for Russia, but it seems that there are only two sets of patriots in Ukraine at present, one donated by the United States and the other by Germany and the Netherlands. The training took 10 weeks, so the arrangement was very concentrated. The Russian army must have found the deployment position through preliminary investigation and organized a wave of multiple bombs. The trailer design of this pot of American troops has to be memorized. After all, it is too difficult to withdraw. Unlike the integrated TEL, you can run if you can, and you can only fight recklessly.
The PAC-3 air defense missile is completely different from the previous PAC-2. PAC-2 adopts wingless layout, and the missile body is very thick, while PAC-3 missile adopts carbon fiber structure with smaller diameter to increase the bomb load, and a launcher can carry 16 at most. The layout became a trapezoidal wing and a rectangular tail rudder with a cross tail. The weight of the projectile is 320kg, the length of the projectile is 5.2m, the diameter of the projectile is 0.255m, the wingspan is 0.5m, and the weight of solid propellant fuel is 1.60kg. In flight, the warhead and the booster rocket are not separated and always remain a whole. The missile has a combat distance of 30-40km, an operational altitude of 15-20+km, a target interception altitude of no more than 15km, and a maximum flight speed of 4. 1 Mach. Guided by C-band semi-active radar and Ka-band fully active radar. Later, Americans developed PAC-3 MSE missile, which has a larger double-pulse solid rocket engine, a trapezoidal wing in the middle of the missile body, a larger tail rudder and an upgraded battery to adapt to higher performance and longer missile range.
PAC-3 missile structure includes seeker, attitude control engine, inertial measurement unit, guidance processor, radio data transmission device, kill enhancement device, solid rocket engine and pneumatic control steering gear. Ka-band millimeter wave active seeker is used as the seeker, with a beam width of 4, a cone angle of 90, a center frequency of 35GHz, a wavelength of 8.6mm and a working distance of about 8- 10 km. Finally, the ACS cabin of attitude control engine with 180 8 cm and 28 g solid propellant was modified. PAC-3 missile has a combat length of about 127 mm and a total mass of 8.2 kg, including 330 g main charge and 24 nearly cylindrical fragments arranged in two coaxial rings along the outer circumference, and was directly hit.
When the missile is launched, PAC-3 missile flies to the interception point designated by its ground computer before launch. The target trajectory data can be updated by RF uplink/downlink during flight. Shortly before reaching the interception point, the Ka-band seeker of the missile captures the target, selects the best aiming point and starts the terminal guidance. The attitude control engine located in the front of the missile carries out terminal correction to ensure a direct hit attack. The cost of PAC-3 missile is still too high, so the cost reduction plan CRI is formulated to reduce the cost of PAC-3 missile and maintain the same performance. The seeker adopts more advanced main frequency generator, multi-band radio data transmission device and simplified inertial measurement unit, so the missile price is reduced. The cost of a newly produced single Patriot missile is 1 1 billion dollars, including 400 million dollars for the system and 690 million dollars for the missile.
This time, the parties also hold their own words. The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation confirmed that the American Patriot air defense system was hit due to the attack of Russian dagger missiles. The Ukrainian authorities announced that at about 3: 30 am on May 16, 2023, Russian troops launched 18 missiles into Ukraine, including 6 Kh-47M2 air-launched ballistic missiles, 9 caliber cruise missiles, 3 land-based missiles and 9 unmanned aerial vehicles. All missiles were successfully intercepted by Ukraine, and Patriot missiles were not lost. On the other hand, Ukrainian social media claimed that Patriot missiles were deployed at Kiev Giuliani Airport (near the "Lonely Beach" scenic spot), * * * There were three Patriot missile launchers, and 32 missiles were launched. The two launchers were connected in parallel, 1 on the other side of the building. The dagger missile hit between two launchers, one was completely destroyed and the other was seriously damaged. The reason why a large number of missiles were launched was because they found that the missiles could not be intercepted, so they simply knocked out the spare bombs to prevent martyrdom. The American media said that the Ukrainian Patriot air defense system was damaged in the attack, but it was not destroyed. Russian missiles may have hit one of the six components of the Patriot air defense system. At present, the extent of damage is being evaluated to determine whether it is necessary to evacuate completely or it can be repaired by the Ukrainian army. From now on, it is certain that the Patriot missile was hit. The Ukrainian side was also very angry and found and arrested six Kiev residents who posted videos. These six people will face up to eight years in prison. The biggest suspense now is how big the loss is this time. Can Ukraine still report it?