WASHINGTON (Agencies): The US Department of State has approved the sale of an upgrade for Kuwait’s Patriot air-defence systems, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced on 30 April.
It said the Patriot Post-Deployment Build 8.1 (PDB-8.1) upgrade is estimated to be worth as much as USD425 million and would be carried out by RTX Corporation, the parent company of Raytheon, the system’s manufacturer.
Raytheon has said the PDB-8.1 upgrade includes an improvement in the systems’ ability to search, track, discriminate, and engage a wide range of evolving threats, as well as a new Warfighter-Machine Interface (WMI) that makes it easier to operate.
“WMI replaces pixellated shapes and a complex directory system with the type of 3D visuals, easy-to-read status pages, and search functions that any gamer would find familiar,” Raytheon said in June 2019, when it announced the new interface would be included in the US Army’s upcoming PDB-8.1 upgrade. “Testing shows that WMI improves soldier reaction time and decreases the potential for errors during engagements. It also reduces the time required to train operators to employ Patriot.”
The approval of the PDB-8.1 upgrade comes after the DSCA notified Congress on 3 April that the sale to Kuwait of Patriot missile recertification and upgrades worth up to USD400 million had been approved by the US State Department. The approval covered the recertification and upgrade of Kuwait’s older Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) Guidance Enhanced Missiles (GEMs) and the upgrade of its GEM-Ts.