New-production patriot missile system by Raytheon debuts with flight test

TEWKSBURY, Mass., 27 March 2012. Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) completed a system-level guided flight test of the new-production Patriot at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The modernized Patriot aims to meet the warfighter's current and future air and missile defense requirements.

The system-level test used new-production major end items (radar, Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical [GEM-T] missile, launching station, Information Coordination Central, and Engagement Control Station) against a long-standing performance scenario to verify system capability.

In the guided test flight, the system searched, detected and tracked an air-breathing, flying target, which the GEM-T missile engaged and destroyed. This scenario was chosen by Raytheon and the U.S. Army for its ability to provide a rigorous test of all aspects of the Patriot system. This builds on the test of the first new ground-up production GEM-T missile announced last October.