The US Congress and State Department has approved Raytheon to upgrade Saudi Arabia’s Patriot air and missile defence system under the direct commercial sales contract.

Under the $1.7bn contract, the company will upgrade the missile to the latest Configuration-3 and modify the ground-system hardware as well as provide a full training package and support equipment.

The company will also upgrade interoperability capability to support potential coalition operations.

Patriot is an advanced ground-based air defence system that is capable of shooting down advanced threats, including aircraft,
tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.