Raytheon's short term plans when it comes to Patriot upgrades.
Patriot gains: Raytheon prepares to deliver the latest radar systems to Poland
Jane's Defence Weekly Nov. 2015
The United States and Poland are working out details of a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to Poland of Raytheon's Patriot air- and missile-defence system that is likely to result in Poland being the first country to receive the Patriot's upgraded active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system.
The Polish government announced that it had selected the Patriot system in April 2015, after which began the government-to-government discussions, John Baird, vice-president of Poland programmes for Raytheon, told IHS Jane's .
The programme has not changed much from the original proposal, Baird noted.
There are three phases. Phase 1 is the initial deployment of the MPQ-65 Phase III (Patriot III Plus): the most modernised version being offered by Raytheon. This capability is currently in production. The goal is to deliver systems to Poland as fast as possible, Baird said.
Phase 2 is a development programme, followed by Phase 3, which had been referred to as Patriot Next Generation but is now called Poland Patriot by the US government, Baird added.
It is in Phase 3 that Poland's Patriot radar system will be upgraded with an AESA and gallium nitride (GaN) front end. The upgrade will also enable Raytheon to incorporate two smaller panels in the back of the system.
"[It] is smaller-sized but the same technology utilising common electronics and common software [found] inside the current Patriot radar to get a full 360° coverage and capability without rotating," Baird said.
The AESA GaN upgrade introduces the latest technology to the radar systems. Primarily it provides better thermal conductivity, which improves performance.
"You can actually have a much more efficient radar solution in a much smaller [space]," Baird said. "It leverages all the existing years of experience in operations and tactical test of the radar software and most of the hardware, so you are reusing a lot of that capability. It allows us to do an upgrade a lot faster."
Although the more advanced AESA GaN radar is a fixed system, Baird noted it can still reorient itself in different directions, "so the primary target line can change, but it still has a full 360 [degree coverage area] without a rotating capability".
Raytheon has built a prototype of the smaller quarter-sized radar panel, which is undergoing testing at the company's facility in Pelham, New Hampshire. It has been integrated with a US Patriot radar demonstrating the capability of the hardware and software of the 360° capability, Baird said.
"We are in the final stages of building a full-scale demonstrator for the front panel. That will be ready in early 2016, so we will have a full-up front panel GaN radar and one of the quarter-size panels for the back," he said.
Poland would likely receive the upgraded AESA GaN patriot radars a few years after the country gets its first fire units under Phase 1. Poland is requesting those first Patriot configuration III Plus systems by 2018, with the remaining units by 2025, Baird said.
The MPQ-65 Phase III Plus is in line with the US Army's current Patriot system. Poland's initial two units will be retrofitted to the MPQ-65 AESA GaN standard. Initially eight batteries were planned to be in service by 2025; however, this number is subject to change until the contract is finalised.
The second major component of the AESA GaN radar is focused on command and control (C2) systems. The current Patriot system has four major end items: two at the far unit level (one for engagement operations and one for planning operations); and two at the battalion level (one for engagement and one for planning).
In the upgrade to AESA GaN, all four of those major end items are integrated into Raytheon's common hardware and software suite that is role-selectable, Baird said.
"So the same physical shelter would do all of those roles [or any combination thereof] depending on how you signed in as an operator. It gives it more operational flexibility, more contingency operations or commonality, which is one of the things Poland really wanted," he said.
Another area included in the upgrade is an elevated launcher. Baird said there has also been a lot of discussion about the missile mix that Poland is pursuing.
"[There] is still strong interest in the future low-cost interceptor, and as part of [that] to get a little bit more performance out of the [PAC-3] missile segment enhancement [MSE], they are considering a multi-elevation launcher which takes the current Patriot launcher and allows it to do two different angles," he said. "One is the current lower angle for longer range and one is the higher angle for what I call more 360 [degree] additional coverage for higher [ground-based midcourse]."
There are also smaller details being worked out between the United States and Poland, for example, on what type of shelter, what type of trucks, and the type of prime movers. Some of the equipment will be adapting to the Polish requirement, Baird added.
For example, the electrical power plant (EPP) in the current Patriot configuration is a large trailer mount that feeds the radar and engagement control station (ECS). It has dual power plants for redundancy. In the upgraded configuration the EPP would just feed the radar, so that the full power plant is available to the radar for additional power, Baird said.
ECS would be replaced by the Common Command and Control (CC2). This is role-selectable and one of the roles it plays is the ECS, he added. "It also replaces the tactical planner shelter configuration, which is a separate shelter for the planning element," Baird said.
Polish operators will then be able to actually do those tasks in the same shelter or two shelters, he added. And by dedicating EPP to just the radar, operators could add a separate generator to CC2 and then physically separate CC2 from the system - something that cannot be done with the current configuration, Baird noted.
"Part of the upgrades take the umbilical cord between the ECS and the radar, which has a physical limit because of the cabling, and replaces that with a fibre-optic connection to the radar so you can [remotely operate] it up to 1 km away now," he said.
The upgrades are designed so that they are retrofitable to all of the current fleet of Patriot radar systems, with Baird saying several countries have expressed an interest in it. "Some customers really want the AESA front end, some don't [want] the 360° [capability] and others do [want it]. You can have either. You don't have to have the whole package. You can just upgrade the front panel and everything works," he said.
However, for now the plan is for Poland to get something as fast as they can to give them a capability against current threats, he said.
Poland also has a requirement for Raytheon to partner with the Polish defence industry, Baird said. "We are still working towards the goal of 50% of the contract value will go into Poland's defence industry, in partnership with their defence consolidation [Poland's PGZ defence company which has replaced Polish Defence Holding].
"There is also a companion activity being initiated as part of, what Poland calls, a new offset lot from last year. It will be a series of technology and knowledge transfers in parallel - between Raytheon and the Polish defence industry - in conjunction and aligned with the work-share scope of the actual contract," Baird said.
The objective is to enhance Poland's defence industries so they can be brought more in tune with export markets and the latest technologies, he said. Baird, however, added that there is no official requirement for 50% for offsets.
"If you do some research on the new offset law in Poland they have gone away from [an] economic stimulus package for offsets to what they are calling direct offsets. They are gearing it around technology and knowledge transfer that will help [their defence industry] become more self-sufficient in the long term," he said.
What the Polish government has done is develop capabilities categories and there is a certain number of categories of technology that they are looking to get transferred, Baird added.
"There is no value associated with them as far as a percentage of the programme, so the 50% number is actually a work-share contract percentage, not offsets," he said.
Although Poland is on the US-approved export list for end-item technology, there are some restrictions for protecting components that must be built in the United States, Baird added.
The United States and Poland are also working out details of how the Patriot systems will be maintained and supported. It is not fully clear yet what Poland is looking for, Baird said.
There have been a number of meetings between the United States and Poland focusing on getting the letter of request (LoR) signed and approved. Once that is done, it will start the FMS process for generating a full proposal, he added.
When it comes to sustainment of Patriot, Baird noted that every country does it a little bit differently. Some countries prefer to have the US government and the contractor provide support, while other countries set up their own depots with their own people and then reach back to the United States and Raytheon when needed.
"I think Poland is looking at a long-term partnership between Raytheon and PGZ. There will be military depot level support and then contractor support, primarily led by PGZ long [term] but probably with Raytheon for the next two to three years as PGZ ramps up," Baird said.
"It depends on how that transfer of knowledge goes and how well and quickly we can get PGZ up to speed on the system, operations and maintenance at the depot level. That is part of what we are discussing right now."
Along with the United States and Poland working out the contractual language, the two sides are also having to learn new terminology. In the United States the terms 'fire unit' and 'battery' are interchangeable; in Poland a battery is two fire units, Baird said. "Typically in Poland their terminology is two fire units per battery and two batteries per squadron. A squadron is equivalent to a battalion in the United States."
The numbers are also part of the current discussions, Baird said, explaining that "originally we were looking at eight fire units".
There is the potential for that number to increase to 16 fire units, he added. However, just how many fire units Poland buys will not be known until a contract is signed sometime in 2016, Baird said.
As far as the number of launchers and missiles Poland would get, that is part of the same discussion, he added.
although SLAMRAAM-ER would definitely be more appropriate way to market it . 
