page_title: Medium Extended Air Defense System
section_title: Major equipment items
hierarchical_section_title: Medium Extended Air Defense System / Major equipment items
context_page_description: The Medium Extended Air Defense System is a ground-mobile air and missile defense system intended to replace the Patriot missile system through a NATO-managed development. The program is a development of the United States, Germany and Italy.
  Developed and designed by the United States, Germany and Italy. MEADS is a ground-mobile air and missile defense system intended to replace German and United States Patriot systems and Italian Nike Hercules systems. Germany chose MEADS to replace their MIM-104 Patriot systems in June 2015. MEADS is designed to address the shortcomings of fielded systems and to permit full interoperability between U.S. and allied forces.
context_section_description: The MEADS air and missile defense system is composed of six major equipment items. The MEADS radars, battle manager, and launchers are designed for high reliability so that the system will be able to maintain sustained operations much longer than legacy systems, resulting in overall lower operation and support costs.
  Multifunction Fire Control Radar (MFCR) – an X-band, solid-state, phased array radar using element-level transmit/receive modules developed in Germany. The MMIC is supplied by the Selex Sistemi Integrati foundry in Rome.The photonics foundry in Rome supplies LiNbO3 
  components for the radar. http://sa.stat.unipd.it/files/lanzieri.pdf https://vdocuments.mx/amp/photonics-in-selex-si-m-dispenza-mdispenzaselex-sicom-39-06-4150-2710-selex-si-rd-unit-microelectronics-photonics-dept-riunione-phorit-wg6.html The active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar provides precision tracking and wideband discrimination and classification capabilities. For extremely rapid deployments, the MEADS MFCR can provide both surveillance and fire control capabilities until a surveillance radar joins the network. The MFCR uses its main beam for uplink and downlink missile communications. An advanced Mode 5 identification friend-or-foe subsystem supports improved threat identification and typing.
  Surveillance Radar (SR) – the UHF MEADS Surveillance Radar is a 360-degree active electronically steered array radar that provides extended range coverage. It provides threat detection capability against highly maneuverable low-signature threats, including short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and other air-breathing threats.
  Battle Management, Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (BMC4I) Tactical Operations Center (TOC) – the MEADS TOC controls an advanced network-centric open architecture that allows any combination of sensors and launchers to be organized into a single air and missile defense battle element. The system is netted and distributed. Every MEADS battle manager, radar, and launcher is a wireless node on the network. By virtue of multiple communications paths, the network can be expanded or contracted as the situation dictates and precludes single point failure if one node becomes inoperable. It also has a plug-and-fight capability that allows MEADS launchers and radars to seamlessly enter and leave the network without shutting it down and interrupting ongoing operations. MEADS uses open, non-proprietary standardized interfaces to extend plug-and-fight to non-MEADS elements. This flexibility is new for ground-based AMD systems.
  Launcher and Reloader – the lightweight MEADS launcher is easily transportable, tactically mobile, and capable of rapid reload. It carries up to eight PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) Missiles and achieves launch readiness in minimum time. A MEADS reloader is similar but lacks launcher electronic systems.
  Certified Missile Round (PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement and canister) – The PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missile is the baseline interceptor for MEADS. The interceptor increases the system's range and lethality over the baseline PAC-3 missile, which was selected as the primary missile for MEADS when the design and development program began in 2004. The MSE missile increases the engagement envelope and defended area by using more responsive control surfaces and a more powerful rocket motor.
  In Germany, the PAC-3 MSE missile is expected to be supplemented by IRIS-T SLS as secondary missile for ground-based medium range air defense. It is based on the IRIS-T air-to-air missile. The shorter range IRIS-T SLS system uses unmodified IRIS-T air-to-air missiles launched from standard LAU-7 aircraft launchers, four of which are mounted onto an all-terrain launch vehicle, while the medium-range IRIS-T SL missile is equipped with an enlarged rocket motor, datalink, and jettisonable drag-reducing nose cone.
caption: IRIS-T SL based on the IRIS-T air-to-air missile
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