Post a Comment Print Share on Facebook

Recognize the enemy faster – the Bundeswehr improves the Patriot air defense system

Who is friend, who is enemy? Fatal mistakes are also said to have occurred in the Ukraine war, because the company's own helicopters or planes were fired upon.

- 33 reads.

Recognize the enemy faster – the Bundeswehr improves the Patriot air defense system

Who is friend, who is enemy? Fatal mistakes are also said to have occurred in the Ukraine war, because the company's own helicopters or planes were fired upon. The IFF technology, an abbreviation for Identification Friend-Foe, in German: friend-foe identification, is one of the most important skills of effective defense, especially in air defense.

This is now to be improved in the Bundeswehr with a modernization of the Patriot air defense system, which has been in use for more than 30 years.

Patriot systems should therefore recognize even more reliably and quickly what an enemy fighter jet, cruise missile or drone is and shoot it down. The improved system should be available to the Bundeswehr before the end of this year, managers at the armaments group MBDA Germany have just explained.

MBDA does not want to reveal details of the improvements. The technology is currently being tested on a test site near Freinhausen in the Bavarian district of Pfaffenhofen.

It's about new software, modernized radars and replacing the decades-old communications technology that was once developed with Siemens' help. In addition, there is an enlarged database for identifying friend-foe radar data, which is maintained by the USA.

According to the Bundeswehr, the previous US radars could control up to 50 targets at the same time and the Patriot missiles could attack up to five targets at a distance of up to almost 70 kilometers and an altitude of 20 kilometers at the same time. That's obviously no longer enough. After all, the Patriot system is to remain in operation with the Bundeswehr until 2048 and the threats from the air are becoming more diverse.

In Germany, however, there are only twelve firing units of the Patriot system developed under the leadership of the US company Raytheon. Defense capabilities have been reduced since the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the Cold War there were once 36 Patriot plus 36 Hawk missile systems.

Each Patriot fire unit has up to eight missile launch trucks, and each truck can fire four to eight Patriots for a maximum of 768 missiles. Then it would have to be reloaded.

There is no information about the stock, but it is probably not large and the reconstruction will take time. The Patriot production at Raytheon in the USA is busy for the global customers, it is said. Germany has to take a back seat. There was also a need to catch up in terms of technology.

The sales director of the armaments group MBDA Germany, Guido Brendler, must therefore think in the medium term. "Now come new Patriot abilities, and then new fire units," he says. The federal government still has to agree to this.

It's not just about building new Patriot launchers. In addition, for the first time a Patriot missile production is planned at MBDA in Bavaria - the world's first location outside the USA. According to Brendler, it should take about four years before it is certified and an MBDA subsidiary can supply the rocket motor. These are standard lead times in the industry.

The Patriot modernization that has now started was also planned before the Ukraine war. The Patriots of the USA already have the improvements now planned for the Bundeswehr.

The Patriot defense system also appears in the list of future German arms deliveries to Ukraine. It is said to be about a fire unit and the delivery of missiles from Bundeswehr stocks. Whether it is then already the improved system is open.

The exact figures on the Patriot holdings are classified. But there are clues. The 50:50 joint venture between MBDA Germany and Raytheon called Comlog takes care of the maintenance and modernization of the missiles of European Patriot users.

On average, a Patriot missile is checked every 18 years. In 2020, Comlog was commissioned to ensure the modification of up to 170 missiles. This will ensure capacity utilization until 2025, according to the 2021 management report published in the Federal Gazette.

So it's not huge numbers and it takes years to ramp up production.

"Everything on shares" is the daily stock exchange shot from the WELT business editorial team. Every morning from 5 a.m. with the financial journalists from WELT. For stock market experts and beginners. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Deezer. Or directly via RSS feed.

Avatar
Your Name
Post a Comment
Characters Left:
Your comment has been forwarded to the administrator for approval.×
Warning! Will constitute a criminal offense, illegal, threatening, offensive, insulting and swearing, derogatory, defamatory, vulgar, pornographic, indecent, personality rights, damaging or similar nature in the nature of all kinds of financial content, legal, criminal and administrative responsibility for the content of the sender member / members are belong.