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From: jkubicky@tybalt.caltech.edu (Joseph J. Kubicky)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Patriot missiles
Message-ID: <1991Jan27.111943.29050@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 27 Jan 91 11:19:43 GMT
References: <1991Jan24.042803.24729@cbnews.att.com>
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From: jkubicky@tybalt.caltech.edu (Joseph J. Kubicky)
atz@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US (Jeff) writes:

>The impression I got is that it is no more than a sophisticated 
>remote controlled device.  Instead of the person on the ground 
>controlling it, the ground computers do that, and guides it to the 
>blip on the radar screen.

The Patriot is a very sophisticated remote controlled device.  The
other day in E&M, our prof passed out an article from _Microwave
Journal_ (May 1988) about the Patriot.  It's a phased-array system,
meaning no moving parts (spherical radar waves emitted from the
feed horn are focussed into a plane wave and steered via ferrite
phase shifters).  There are at least three pieces to the system:
the Radar Set, which transmits and focuses the radar signals, the
Engagement Control Station, where the operators sit and work things
from, and one or more Launching Stations, which fire the missles.
   When a missle is launched, the radar provides it with guidance
commands and tracks it.  When it nears the target, the radar transmits
TVM (target-via-missle) illumination pulses to the target.  The 
reflected pulses are received by the missle and transmitted back to
the radar's TVM antenna.  TVM pulse data is then processed to
accurately guide the missle in the final portion of flight.
   The computers in the ground station perform very sophisticated
signal processing and guidance functions.  For more info, look
up the article.

						Jay Kubicky