Members of the 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade perform reload operations on a Patriot system in an unidentified location during Keen Sword drills on Oct. 28, 2024. (Connor Davis/U.S. Army)
The Army is sending an improved Patriot battalion to Guam as the Defense Department undertakes an $8 billion plan to defend the U.S. territory and mid-ocean military platform from missile attacks.
The unit will be one of up to four new Patriot battalions, Gen. James Mingus, the Army vice chief of staff, said July 2 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He did not say when the battalions would become operational.
The Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense System being built on the island includes Patriot air defense systems, according to the project’s final Environmental Impact Statement released July 25.
The defense system is expected to provide continuous 360-degree protection against cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missile attacks. Its plans call for radars, sensors, missile launchers, missile interceptors and support facilities at sites around the island.
The system is expected to become operational as each of its 16 sites are completed over the next decade, according to the EIS.
Army Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in May, estimated the project’s cost at $8 billion.
Modern versions of the Patriot system, first used in combat during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, can carry up to 16 missiles designed to intercept and destroy incoming projectiles.
Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told lawmakers this spring that a Patriot battalion had been transferred from his area of responsibility to U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East and South Asia.
In June, about 200 U.S. troops from a South Korea-based Patriot unit were temporarily redeployed to the Middle East.
Patriots defended Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar against Iranian missile attacks that month after U.S. B-2 Spirit stealth bombers attacked Iranian nuclear facilities.
The new Patriot battalions will use a powerful type of air and missile defense sensor to vastly extend the Patriots’ range, Mingus said, according to an Army news release July 24.
The Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor can identify and defeat multiple targets, including low-altitude cruise missiles, hypersonic missiles and short-range ballistic missiles, the release said.
It can scan 360-degrees — an improvement over older sensors that were limited to 270 degrees, according to the release.
“It greatly expands the range, the altitude, and it’s a 360,” Mingus said. That means the Army’s 15 existing Patriot battalions would be twice as capable with the latest gear, he added.
“You would have the equivalent of about 30 Patriot battalions because instead of having to deploy as batteries, you can break them up and disperse them in a much more tactical way,” he said.
