Our air defense artillery assets consists of Patriot, THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and the SHORAD (Short Range Air Defense) battalions and batteries, among other elements.
A Patriot Missile Battalion consists of four or five Patriot Missile Batteries. A Patriot Missile Battery consists of four or six launchers, each with four missiles. The United States has 16 Patriot battalions. There is one battalion in Germany and three battalions in South Korea and I gather at least one battery in the Gulf (not sure which). I gather the most elements of the other 11 battalions are in the U.S. As of 2010 it was reported that the U.S. Army operates a total of 1,106 Patriot launchers (1,106/16 = 60 launchers per battalion). According to a count developed from multiple open sources, our air defense battalions and batteries are located at:
Baumholder, Germany
5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriots)
5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (equipped with 36 Avenger SHORAD systems, with 36 in prepositioned storage).
Fort Bliss, Texas:
1st Battalion/43rd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
2nd Battalion/43rd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
3rd Battalion/43rd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
5th Battalion/52rd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
Battery A, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (THAAD)
Battery B, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (THAAD)
Battery E, 3rd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (THAAD)
Battery A, 4th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (THAAD)
Guam:
Battery A, 5th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (THAAD)
Fort Sill, Oklahoma
3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
4th Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar)
2nd Battalion, 6th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (C-RAM, Sentinal, Stinger/Avenger)
3rd Battalion, 6th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
Fort Hood, Texas
4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
1st Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
1st Battalion, 62nd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
Fort Bragg, North Carolina
3rd Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot/Avenger?)
1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
Fort Campbell, Kentucky
2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar)
Suwon Air Base, South Korea
6th Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
2nd Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
D Battery, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (THADD)
1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Rgt (Patriot)
Location unknown:
B Battery, 62nd Air Defense Artillery Rgt (THAAD) – activated 2016
This listing does not include National Guard units. It is also not definitive.
Chris, I heard on the news that Patriot missiles were in Saudi Arabia (none in Iraq, at least not protecting the attacked bases).
U.S. Sends Additional Capabilities to Saudi Arabia
Oct. 11, 2019| BY C. Todd Lopez
In the wake of an Iranian attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities last month, Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper announced that more capabilities have been authorized to deploy in support of the long-time U.S. partner.
At a Pentagon news conference today, Esper said he authorized the deployment of two fighter squadrons, an air expeditionary wing, two Patriot missile batteries, and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system to Saudi Arabia.
Do we know which units or where they were deployed from?
Don’t know which units were deployed.
Well probably the bigger question is if we have 16 operational Patriot battalions, why are there only a couple of batteries in the Middle East?
And why are most of the batteries sitting in the Continental USA?
The Saudi’s have PAC-2 Patriot Missiles: supposedly 6 Battalions. Maybe, but that sounds like an awful lot of missiles.
Not sure where they are located, but reports from the drone attack on their refineries indicate that the Patriots did not perform well.
The Patriots, fairly or not, seem to have a poor reputation. Reading between the lines, this may be why some countries are eyeing Russian SAM systems.
[…] protecting the U.S. air operations center in Qatar, critical sites in South Korea, and dozens more vital […]
Check the pingback. Looks like Heritage Foundation is linking their article to this post. On the other hand, I believe the data they are referencing I got from Wikipedia.
[…] because of their significant deterrent power, these missiles are still deployed worldwide, and 1,106 Patriot launchers have been built and are scattered despite their high cost of $1 billion per […]