Privy Council No. 10: In preparation for the "large-scale conflict with China", the United States has "launched" Patriot missiles into the sea

Source: Privy Council No. 10

In preparation for the "large-scale conflict with China", the United States has come up with a "one-man moth" - Lockheed Martin announced on the 20th that it successfully intercepted a simulated cruise missile target using the "Patriot 3" MSE air defense missile launched from the "Virtual Aegis" weapon system. It is said that this test has proved that the land-based "Patriot 3" The feasibility of equipping the US Navy's Aegis warship with missiles provides a feasible plan for substantially increasing the US Navy's ammunition inventory.

The picture is a screenshot of relevant reports

However, the premise of all this is that the US Navy will approve the purchase of such land-based air defense missiles - up to now, the "Go to Sea" plan of the "Patriot 3" MSE has been funded by Lockheed Martin. It is estimated that by the end of this year, it will cost more than 100 million dollars, which is really a huge cost.

According to the 21st Daily News website of the US Defense News, the Patriot 3 MSE missile is the latest model in the land-based Patriot air defense and antimissile family, with a longer interception range. The US Missile Defense Agency had previously provided some funds to request Lockheed Martin to integrate the Patriot 3 MSE missile into the land-based Aegis anti missile system. However, Lockheed Martin believes that this land-based anti missile system has greater application potential - to meet the needs of the US Navy, so it began to self raise funds to integrate the Patriot 3 MSE missile with the US Navy's Aegis system. In the summer of 2023, Lockheed Martin announced that it had completed the integration of the Patriot 3 MSE missile and the carrier based Aegis system SPY-1 phased array radar.

The US Missile Defense Agency had previously asked Lockheed Martin to integrate the Patriot 3 MSE missile into the land-based Aegis anti missile system

The reason why Lockheed Martin wanted to promote the "Patriot - 3" MSE missile "going into the sea" so firmly was that it officially saw the lack of capability of the United States Navy. At the beginning of this year, Tom Copman, Vice President of Naval System of Missile and Fire Control Business Department of Lockheed Martin, announced in an interview with Defense News that "there is a gap in the ability of the US Navy to deal with advanced threats at sea", while "Patriot missile is a kind of weapon that has been verified in actual combat and can fight against advanced threats and even hypersonic weapons".

More specifically, "China, Russia and other competitors with similar strength are developing and deploying more advanced air, sea and ground launched cruise missiles, including hypersonic cruise missiles". Therefore, the Patriot 3 MSE missile, which can intercept both the "Dagger" hypersonic missile (from Ukraine) and the cruise missile, should naturally be the best choice for the US Navy.

But the United States Navy had no interest in it earlier. The spokesman of the US Navy responded that adding "Patriot - 3" MSE missiles to naval vessels would not fill the capacity gap of the US Navy, but would only supplement the interceptor missile inventory of the current vertical launch system.

The picture shows the US Navy ship (data picture)

However, the dilemma encountered by the US Navy in the Red Sea escort operation changed everything. According to the US "Power" website, with the continuation of the escort operation, the US destroyers spent a lot of shipborne anti-aircraft missiles when intercepting a large number of cheap UAVs launched by Yemeni Husei armed forces. As of February this year, the US Navy has launched more than 100 "standard" series shipborne anti-aircraft missiles in these operations. In April, the US Navy also used the extremely expensive "Standard-3" anti missile interceptor to assist Israel in fighting against the incoming Iranian ballistic missile for the first time in the battle. US Navy Secretary Toro acknowledged that the US Navy spent nearly US $1 billion worth of missiles in intercepting the Husei armed drones and assisting Israel. Due to the huge ammunition consumption, the US Navy also began to look forward to the "Patriot" anti missile system "going into the sea". According to the report, the purpose of this test is to meet the ammunition interworking capability urgently needed by the US Navy, so as to avoid the time-consuming and costly cost faced by the US Navy in re developing a new missile.

Furthermore, the Pentagon has always worried that if a large-scale conflict broke out with China in the Pacific region, it is expected to consume more ammunition, and the existing missile stocks of the US Navy may soon be exhausted. Last year, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US think-tank, made several computer push shows that once the Taiwan Strait conflict broke out, the US military had exhausted all precision ammunition, including anti-aircraft missiles, two weeks later. Therefore, the US media also believe that the ability to launch Patriot 3 MSE missiles on US naval vessels can alleviate the growing concern within the US Navy to some extent, that is, "how to maintain a stable supply of anti-aircraft missiles in the future high-end conflict with China".

Just under these grandiose statements, Lockheed Martin's goal is to "make money". The "Standard - 6" missile developed by Raytheon is the most important air defense missile of the US Navy at present, with a maximum range of about 240 kilometers. It can not only intercept traditional air targets such as fighter planes, but also have the ability to counter ballistic missiles. It is said that it is the only type of weapon in active service of the US military that can intercept hypersonic missiles, and can even be used as a "quasi ballistic missile" Attack ships and other surface targets. Even Lockheed Martin admitted that the "Standard - 6" and "Patriot - 3" MSE missiles have roughly the same air defense capabilities, but have unique ground/sea attack capabilities. The budget of the Pentagon for fiscal year 2025 shows that the cost of the Patriot 3 MSE missile is similar to that of the Standard 6 missile. At present, the unit price of the most advanced "Standard - 6" Block IA is about 4.3 million dollars, while the price of the "Patriot - 3" MSE missile is 4.2 million dollars.

But the problem is that Raytheon's production of "Standard - 6" missiles is too slow. In 2019, Raytheon signed a contract to produce 625 "Standard - 6" missiles in five years, and only now has delivered half of them. In contrast, the annual output of the Patriot 3 MSE missiles is up to 500, and is expected to increase to 550. Lockheed Martin also plans to further increase its production to fill the "Patriot" missile inventory consumed to assist Ukraine. It is obvious that Lockheed Martin is aiming at the current "ammunition shortage" of the US Navy - it can be imagined that once the US military starts to stock up ammunition according to the script of the "Sino US War", the purchase of shipborne anti-aircraft missiles will be an astronomical number.

But then again, it is still unknown whether the US Navy will finally approve the "Patriot 3" to board the ship - the US Navy's "standard" series of anti-aircraft missiles have always been developed by Raytheon. Today, Lockheed Martin's intervention has obviously violated Raytheon's "private land", and the result may depend on the political game between the two military giants.